A technicolour dream and a powerhouse drama: “Waves” is the real deal
Make way for a new contender for the best film of the year. Directed, written, and produced by Trey Edward Shults (who made - excuse the pun - waves in 2017 with his A24-produced horror film, It Comes At Night), Waves is a powerful and gripping story about family, love and growing up. In this era of supercharged politics, it’s a breath of fresh air to watch something rooted in pure, honest emotion, about characters both compelling and real.
The story of Waves is told in two sections. Act one follows the life of Tyler Williams (Kelvin Harrison Jnr.), an African American high school senior dealing with the pains of growing up. Tyler is a smart kid. He enjoys partying, hanging out with his girlfriend, and aspires for greatness in his wrestling. Tyler feels pressure to be exceptional, and is constantly reminded of his father, Ronald’s (played with stoic warmth by Sterling K. Brown) increasingly high standards. In Ronald’s words: “We are not afforded the luxury of mediocrity”. Whilst Tyler isn’t mediocre, he’s not exceptional either. Instead, Tyler is a painfully-relatable young man with a story that is poignant and affecting. As the pressure-cooker of his world boils out of control, Tyler’s story becomes a technicolour Shakespearean tragedy propounded by a thumping, disorienting soundtrack and mesmerising cinematography.
Act two concerns the life of Emily Williams (Taylor Russel), evidently more shy and reserved than her brother and a great deal more introspective. Her story has a slower pace with cinematography and music that provide a lilting, graceful flow; it’s the ‘ying’ to Tyler’s ‘yang’, so to speak. Emily is a thoughtful girl, a little out of place, broken by experiences she can’t understand. Her story is one of empathy, grief and perseverance. Whilst not as fast-paced and bombastic as Tyler’s, Emily’s section of the film is handled with great nuance and emotional depth. Her gradual affection-cum-deep love for her boyfriend Luke (played by A24 alum Lucas Hedges) serves as the anchor for which everything revolves. As their relationship blossoms, Emily and Luke experience their own coming-of-age tale that is both heartwarming and life-affirming in equal measure and serves to expand the thematic concerns of Waves towards something more grounded and optimistic.
The music and cinematography are both excellent. With a score by the eminent Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, fast becoming Hollywood A-list collaborators, known for their work on The Social Network, Gone Girl, and last year’s phenomenal HBO Watchmen adaptation, the soaring soundscapes and deeply affecting drones and bursts of synthetic warmth give Waves an undeniably modern-feel as well as making it a compulsively watchable film. The same can be said for Drew Daniels’ cinematography. Dynamic and fluid, Daniels’ stunning, floating lens imbues Waves with a dreamlike quality, a soaring miasma of beauty, honesty and calm that counters the turbulent and tragic events of the film.
Whilst stunning and exceptional on so many levels, the film's real trump card is its heart. It’s a film about people, about struggle, about love and forgiveness. It’s a film so deeply heartbreaking, and powerfully uplifting, that you’d be hard-pressed to leave the cinema not seismically affected. A must-see.
5 out of 5 stars
