Review of Waves (2019) by Moviemitch96 — 07 Dec 2019

This film follows the life of a family living in Miami, Florida as they pursue love and dreams, until they're shattered and nearly torn apart by an unexpected and sudden tragedy. This film definitely had a lot going for it.

A great cast (with actors like Sterling K. Brown and Lucas Hedges to name a couple), and an intriguing story setup. However, the story felt highly unbalanced some times, and excessively melodramatic other times.

The first half really begins to deteriorate for me as the drama gradually increased and the likability of certain characters decreased. I found the second half only slightly better, as the melodrama continues well into the rest of the film from this point but does offer some touching and hopeful moments.

As far as characters go, there were only really a few likable characters the film had to offer. There were some interesting cinematography choices, even if there were a few too many scenes of the camera spinning around in circles.

Furthermore, I'm torn as to whether I should praise the somewhat interesting use of many different aspect ratios throughout the film that really helped change and set the tone for a lot of scenes or whether it felt random and gimmicky (because it honestly did feel that way sometimes.

) Overall, the film does have a powerful message to share about the bonds we share with family and loved ones, as well as the choices we make, and the pitfalls and mistakes in life that may impact those around us for better or worse, but the film's style and approach simply felt too jumbled and uncertain of itself for my liking and I was mostly left frustrated and underwhelmed by the end of it all.