Waves movie review & film summary (2019)
This kind of dense, complex storytelling requires a lot of trust in performers and Shults’ cast repays that trust with some of the best ensemble work of the year. For lack of a better word, Harrison gets the “flashy” performance, but he’s not the only stand-out here, in fact it’s Taylor Russell who feels like the revelation. Few young actresses have been able to convey so much emotion with a worried look or warm embrace. She only has a few scenes before she’s asked to carry some heavy emotional weight, but she carries it gracefully and movingly. And Brown has a couple scenes that reveal the depth of character he’s found here as well. Like a lot of great dramas, you can see the backstory work done by the actors. Brown isn’t just showing up and delivering lines, he’s playing a fully-realized, complete character. And so when these people are pushed into emotional situations, we feel their pain because of the detailed background they imbued into their characters.
“Waves” is visually daring in ways that will make it perfect for year-end montages about the best films of 2019, but what stuns me most is how much Shults, even at just 30, has found a way to balance the lyrical and the human. Some will compare it to Barry Jenkins’ work—and the Florida setting adds to that—but Shults has his own voice. It’s one that carefully considers all technical decisions – the sound design here is fantastic too—but then grounds it all in character. He finds a way to marry his technical playfulness to the performances he pulls from his award-worthy cast.
When we’re 18, we think we’re invincible, especially in the case of star athletes—Tyler literally shouts “I cannot be taken down” with his teammates before a wrestling match. Yes, Tyler, you can. And not everyone has the emotional strength to handle when life takes them down, or to cope when they make horrible mistakes, and Shults’ film is careful to reveal how that can happen at any age, whether it’s Tyler’s life-changing decisions or the well-meaning but deeply damaging pressure from his father, which is also a mistake. We all make them. But even those mistakes can lead to grace, forgiveness, and beauty. They can lead to a recognition that the wave that crashes on the beach will soon recede back to the peace of the ocean.
This review was filed from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6th.
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