• About Us
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
Thursday, January 26, 2023
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily
No Result
View All Result

Waves: Let Love Rule

by Sasha Stone
September 1, 2019
in TELLURIDE
4
Waves: Let Love Rule

Waves, the third film of Trey Edward Shults, is more evidence of his versatility, exploding onto the screen with authentic vibrations of ordinary life. Within the first five minutes, it’s clear that the camera is headed exactly where fate takes it. Set to the moody techno rhythm of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score, the camera swirls in an 360 degree arc around a car humming down the highway, with nothing but the Florida coastline and ocean ready to swallow it up. We can see that the driver and passenger, Trey and Alexis, are two kids in love — a pop song kind of love that will either be the best or worst thing that ever happened to them.

Why do these two people matter, the film asks as they move to the music and hang their hands out the window to push against the speeding onrush of air and their destiny. Waves, we call it. That force of moving through and against the a gust of current that swooshes past the windows of fast-moving cars. It is an apt metaphor and an action the director will repeat throughout the film, along with bodies immersed in water, to represent what the characters endure in this exquisite film about the relentless physics of human experience.

The film is about wrestling with feelings of hatred and resentment against good people who do terrible things. It is a cliché to say love heals everything, but indeed, here is a film that makes the case that love is really the only path forward out of darkness. Sterling K. Brown plays a father who does his best to keep his son (an excellent Kelvin Harrison Jr.) under the kind of vigilant pressure required to raise a black man through the land mines of middle-class America. Is he too tough or not tough enough?

Tyler, at 18, begins the film on a successful path: he’s a star athlete, has a beautiful girlfriend he loves, has a family that seems perfect from the outside looking in. But he’s tested when life begins to tighten around his neck, threatens his grip on everything he holds dear, and runs the risk of robbing him of his potential future. Things might seem fine at the outset, but they quickly start to fall apart.

Living in Tyler’s shadow is his younger sister (standout Taylor Russell). The second half of the film takes up her story as she too begins to fall in love and edge towards the same kind of treacherous waters of adulthood as her brother. She meets awkward Luke (Lucas Hedges), who is funny enough to thaw out the chill she’s built as a shield from personal tragedies that have previously shut her down.

“Toxic masculinity” is an overused and mostly useless phrase, and some will inevitably apply that term to the main character in Waves. But to describe his trouble that way is too easy and too general. It implies that aggressive testosterone is in control — but what if the toughness stems from a lack of control, or fear? This is a story about how people can get tangled in and around their own complicated emotions, but are able to ultimately find their way back to each other after splitting apart. It heads in unexpected and deeply moving directions, with the director never losing his assured hand and tight rein on where he wants this story to go and how he wants it end.

Shults wrote, directed, and co-edited Waves with urgency and a pulsating life force. His camera expresses the internal worlds of its subjects with such intimacy you almost forget it’s even there — until you are hit with yet another glorious, breathtaking shot.

Waves will recall Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, as both stories center on black characters living in Florida whose lives float, in and out of water, and are captured so beautifully with dreamy music and heart stopping moments of insight. But Waves is less about finding out who you are (as Moonlight was) and more about a choice we all have to make: do we hold onto hatred, do we continue to fight, or do we let go of past anger, and remember that all we need to hang onto the here and now. In one of the film’s most memorable moments, Ronald tells Emily that her brother Trey is not a monster. He’s just human. This father and daughter may have had a hard time connecting throughout their lives, but what brings them together is blood and unbreakable bonds of shared heritage.

The idea that we need more love and less hatred resonates urgently in 2019. Shults has made a persuasive argument for forgiveness, even for the worst people we’ve committed so much of our energy to hating. It is one thing to swarm someone on social media, to mock and dehumanize them. It’s wholly another to remember that most people are simply trying to survive the waves that life sends our way. We can sink and be submerged by them, or we can ride them.

Waves is sure to be regarded as one of the best films of 2019.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Print
Tags: TellurideTelluride 2019Trey Edward ShultsWaves
Sasha Stone

Sasha Stone

Related Posts

TIFF Reviews: Dickens and Zombies and Bulls, Oh My!

TIFF Reviews: Dickens and Zombies and Bulls, Oh My!

by Kevin Klawitter
September 6, 2019
9

The Personal History of David Copperfield Armando Iannuci, known as the man behind such sharp, profane political satires as In the...

The Aeronauts – A Flight of Fancy With a Great Performance by Felicity Jones

The Aeronauts – A Flight of Fancy With a Great Performance by Felicity Jones

by Sasha Stone
September 6, 2019
7

Tom Harper’s The Aeronauts serves an important purpose as an aspirational film for young girls who either love science, or...

Motherless Brooklyn – “a tightly wound loose cannon, a tight loose”

Motherless Brooklyn – “a tightly wound loose cannon, a tight loose”

by Sasha Stone
September 19, 2021
2

There are two things to know about Edward Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn. One is that this is a film that is...

Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins Share Communion in the Two Popes

Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins Share Communion in the Two Popes

by Sasha Stone
September 1, 2019
0

Fernando Meirelles is back after working in television for the past few years. His latest film, The Two Popes, which...

Destroyer – Kidman and Kusama Blow the Lid off of Telluride

Destroyer – Kidman and Kusama Blow the Lid off of Telluride

by Sasha Stone
September 1, 2018
35

"Kusama, like Kidman, is not afraid to taxi to the dark side of human nature, and equally unafraid of hard...

Telluride Review: The Old Man & the Gun – Swan Song for a Legend

Telluride Review: The Old Man & the Gun – Swan Song for a Legend

by Sasha Stone
August 31, 2018
6

"Even though actors live forever on screen, their past selves preserved in golden amber, sooner or later we have to...

Next Post
Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins Share Communion in the Two Popes

Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins Share Communion in the Two Popes

Sony Future Filmmaker Awards 2023

Sony Future Filmmaker Awards 2023

January 26, 2023
A Note on Comments and Comment Moderation

A Note on Comments and Comment Moderation

January 26, 2023
Oscar Predictions 2023: Best Actor and Picture Connection

2023 Oscar Nominee: Wayne Pashley on Recreating Iconic ‘Elvis’ Sounds, Performances

January 26, 2023
Oscars 2023: Is the Oscar Movie Really Dying?

Oscars 2023: Writers Guild Announces Nominations

by Sasha Stone
January 25, 2023
71

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York and Los Angeles (January 25, 2023) – Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and Writers...

Oscars 2023: Academy Members as Social Media Influencers

Oscars 2023: Academy Members as Social Media Influencers

by Sasha Stone
January 25, 2023
268

A brand new career has opened up for Academy members. It's the same path open to just about about every...

All This and the Oscars Too – Big Awards Drop

Oscar Podcast – Reacting to the Nominees

by Sasha Stone
January 24, 2023
38

A quick chat between me, Ryan and Clarence (we missed Mark this time) on the Oscar nominees. Low key rundown...

Oscars 2023: Frontrunners and Their Challengers, Post Nominations

Oscars 2023: Frontrunners and Their Challengers, Post Nominations

by Sasha Stone
January 24, 2023
540

The Oscar nominations dropped this morning. The Academy's nominations were live for the first time in a while, which was...

2023 Oscar Predictions: Breaking Down the Documentary Short Subject Shortlist

2023 Oscar Predictions: Breaking Down the Documentary Short Subject Shortlist

by Joey Moser
January 26, 2023
1

For most of the year, the short film categories are a mystery. The next time you attend a film festival,...

Good As Gold: Final 2023 Oscar Predictions Manifesto

Good As Gold: Final 2023 Oscar Predictions Manifesto

by Mark Johnson
January 23, 2023
36

Another year, another run through the film awards gauntlet. While the Good As Gold column has not been as prominent...

AwardsDaily Crew

  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Editor Clarence Moye
  • Editor Mark Johnson
  • Contact Us

ADTV Crew

  • ADTV Home
  • Megan McLachlan, Editor
  • Joey Moser, Editor
  • Clarence Moye, Editor
  • Jalal Haddad, Senior Contributor
  • Shadan Larki
  • Ben Morris
  • David Phillips
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Oscar Podcast
  • AwardsDailyTV

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In