Waves: Messy, Overwrought Family Drama Demands Emotion but Arouses Antipathy
By Liam Lacey
Rating: B-
Tyler, a 17-year-old high school wrestler, carries his family’s hopes on his young shoulders in Waves, a film about a suburban Florida African-American family in crisis. Rising director Trey Edward Shults (Krishna, It Came At Night) is clearly determined to make a big statement here in this 135-minute emotional beat-down. This is the sort of film that will divide audiences between those who will have their hearts torn out… and those who will want to tear out their hair.
Filled with vertiginous 360-degree camera pans, piles of the confessional “you-were-never-there-for-me” speeches, and a wall-to-wall rap soundtrack and soundscape from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the film unfolds as a diptych. The first half tells the story of the troubled Tyler, the second of his redemptive younger sister, Emily.
Oscar contention seems likely. There have been many rave reviews for the film in limited release. It deals with topical references to systemic racism: African-American incarceration rates and toxic masculinity. And it has a strong cast, many of whom are best known for their television work. If so, one can also expect questions about whether Shults, who is white, is the right person to provide insights and judgement into black experience.
Those issues aside, what feels most distinctive about Waves is that it is so overwrought in such a double-barrel way. On one hand, it’s a loss-and-redemption melodrama with distinct echoes of a Nicholas Sparks melodrama. On the other, it’s shot and edited with the jackhammer style of a Gaspar Noé provocation.
Let’s say this much for the first half — it is pumped. With his hair dyed in Kanye-like blond curls and a pretty Hispanic girlfriend (Alexa Demie) in his passenger seat of his car, Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is the taut-muscled, flashy proverbial big man on campus, who lives in a spacious home with his parents and sister (Taylor Russell).
The one shadow over his life is his hovering, domineering father, Ronald (Sterling K. Brown, who kind of corners the market on stern-but-caring), a construction contractor who declaims that “We are not afforded the luxury of being average... average isn’t good enough for us.” Tyler gets compassion from his caring stepmother (Renée Elise Goldsberry) and love from Emily but you sense that somethings is going to give.
Tyler’s downfall starts with a shoulder injury which sends him into a downward spin. A doctor says he should give up wrestling, but Tyler persists, stealing his father’s painkillers to get him through. (That a 17-year-old’s parents don’t know about his diagnosis seems unlikely). At almost the same time, he learns that his girlfriend is pregnant and soon the combination of drugs, booze, and disappointment drives him to violence. The speed with which Tyler transitions from success-tracked, clean-cut kid to raging id feels improbable at best.
The film’s second half, focusing on younger sister Emily — a shy and studious type who has retreated into her shell after attacks on social media — switches from major to minor key. It’s shot in a different style, mostly hazily lit and dreamy, with echoes of Terrence Malick. And while it’s preferable, the long, fumbling, drawn-out scenes of young love manage to find their own way of testing your patience.
Emily is approached by cute and geeky Luke (Lucas Hedges) who wants to date her, despite her family scandal. He, too, has a family problem — a long-estranged deadbeat dad who’s dying of cancer in Missouri. So, Emily, who literally lets her hair down with Luke, feels his pain and helps him, so there is a lot of healing and people finally being there for each other.
Waves. Directed and written by Trey Edward Shults. Starring Kelvin Harrison Jr., Sterling K. Brown, Lucas Hedges, Taylor Russell, Alexa Demie and Renée Elise Goldsberry. Opens in Toronto November 22, and in theatres across Canada December 6.