***WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***
Waves is an emotional ride featuring a family that was so delicately run, that once a tiny crack appeared, the wheels fell completely off.
The narrative style is risky, given it tricks the audience into thinking the story is about Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and his father (Sterling K. Brown) when it's really about how their actions affect Emily (Taylor Russell) and the mother (Renée Elise Goldsberry). In doing so, the film is divided into two and the tone in both halves could not be any more different.
This film takes a stab at the effects of a toxic, masculine upbringing that is taken hostage by unwavering success. With that tone set, it pulls the rug from under all of us and showed how the slightest slip up can set in motion a series of events that lead to the complete downfall and, eventually, a life-altering decision.
That's where the women come in. This film by Trey Edward Shults is really about how success and male-centric family affects the women in their life and how they move forward from the adverse effects of it.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. has had one heck of a year. In both Waves and Luce, he gives great performances as similar characters: a black teenager with great success and promise in life who can't afford the slightest ripple. “We are not afforded the luxury of being average” is a line, said by the father, that describes the intense pressure he is under to succeed, especially as a black teenager in modern-day America.
At the end of it all, this movie belongs to Taylor Russell. The tonal shift in the second half off the film comes completely hand in hand with Russell's character and performance, which is the complete opposite of Harrison Jr.'s.
My score: ★★★½
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