Waves covers everything a modern family has to deal with in a beautiful and touching way
A LOT of the much-deserved criticism thrown at Bafta and the Academy for their lack of diversity (again) could have been quelled had this wonderful film got the recognition it deserved.
Split into two distinct halves, Waves first tells the story of a family who, no matter how hard they’ve tried and pushed for perfection, get torn to pieces and then how they cope with picking up the pieces.
Kelvin Harrison Jr is Tyler Williams, a seemingly perfect high school student.
He is a promising wrestler, academically bright and popular among his friends.
But despite all this, he is continually pushed to the absolute limit by his strict and overbearing father (Sterling K Brown).
When he suffers a career- ending injury, he decides to keep it secret. This, coupled with some unwelcome news from his girlfriend, shows just how close to the brink Tyler has been. Once the release valve is opened, things start unravelling terrifyingly quickly. The spiral accumulates in a shocking, life-changing event.
The story switches to his quiet sister Emily (Taylor Russell). Blaming herself for the family’s predicament, we follow her as she distances herself from the gossipy-gaze of judgmental school friends and inadvertently finds herself discovering love via Luke (Lucas Hedges).
Reconciling with her tempestuous father, together they work out how to grow and move forward amid the chaos the family have found themselves in. The performances from Harrison Jr and Russell are simply breathtaking.
The complexities of the story would be completely lost were it not for these two.
Waves is a rare film with every department firing on all cylinders. The screenplay covers everything a modern family has to deal with; ambition, expectation, loss, horror, love, sexuality . . . the list is endless, but it folds in on itself in such a beautiful and touching way.
With the aforementioned performances delivering this beautiful tragedy, it is left to director Trey Edward Shults to give it this unique, dazzling sheen.
If you are a parent, it is heartbreaking – if you are a young adult it is terrifying. But as filmmaking goes, it feels vital. It is mystifying it was overlooked for awards.
Waves (15) 136mins
★★★★☆