Review of Waves (2019) by Iheartmoviess — 18 Dec 2019

The film's bifurcated structure is the only reason I wasn't turned off by it's tragically toxic protagonist (Kelvin Harrison Jr in his second film by Shults) and emotionally destructive first half. From the prolonged opening shot to the over-directed, anxiety-inducing wrestling scenes I thought I was going to vomit.

HOWEVER, the gorgeous photography of each family member and their gauzy, Floridian suburbia, especially throughout the calming second half, thoroughly wooed me. The detailed, if not exhausting sound design includes a library of shuffling songs and a rad Reznor/Ross original score.

This is A Lot of movie: constantly shifting aspect ratios, deliberately colored sets and costumes, a totally unique narrative structure. All of this is reportedly in Shults' script, including colored fonts and specified aspect ratios.

Adjacent to a horror film in it's first half, or "the brother's half" led by Harrison Jr, was unbearable in the way an Ari Aster film will portray excruciating moments of humanity, usually in the wake of devastation.

The second half provided much needed relief to the increasingly destructive and anxious first half. The heart of the second half belongs to the sister, Emily (Taylor Russell in one of the best performances of the year), who is sidelined in the first half.

Russell provides poignant scenes of healing with her father (played by the astounding Sterling K. Brown) and of romantic teenage vulnerability with Lucas Hedges. Also Renee Elise Goldsberry!!! I've seen criticism ranging from "a white filmmaker shouldn't tell this story" to "Waves hates black people".

I know Shults wrote the script with Harrison Jr as his muse, interviewing and consulting African Americans along the way, but if people find the perspective abhorrent, they're totally entitled to that opinion.

The family's upper class positioning is explored through Sterling K. Brown's primal protection of his son, a black teenager, by pushing his son to excellence, unaware his tactics were pushing him over the edge.

Brown explicates his elemental fatherly protection directly to his son, articulating the burden of having to "work ten times harder" than white people to survive. Other than being irked by any upper class characters, I thought the integration of the character's class into the story had a haunting authenticity, especially after the film's first half.

Also all those upper class kids WOULD be listening to Frank on repeat, so, idk I'm white.