WAVES (2020) FILM REVIEW

*****

15, 136 Mins

Two-folded gem heralds the coming of the new "weird" in African American cinema. 

Drawing paralells with 'Moonlight' (2017) is a risky business, but, you know what, I like risks so I'm going to do so anyway! It remains extraordinary beyond belief that what began life as a little, low-budget arthouse flick managed to scoop up Best Picture at the 2017 OSCARS. More impressive, though, is that this tiny film has had quite the profound cultural impact on modern movie-making it has; putting proof to my statement that it would "stand the test of time".

While movies like 'The Last Tree' (2019) and 'The Last Black Man in San Francisco' (2019) cashed in on Barry Jenkin's universal approach to tackling racial politics, there hasn't yet been a film that can officially sell itself as 'Moonlight's spiritual successor. That is until 'Waves' (2020). The similarities between Director Trey Edward Shult's film and Jenkin's masterpiece are too gapingly obvious to ignore. For one thing, it's an A24 production which - with the success of 'Room' (2016) and 'The Florida Project' (2017) among countless others - is quickly becoming the seal of quality in arthouse circles. The first of this film's symphony of two acts also centres around an angry black male in Miami.

And yet this is where the comparisons end because 'Waves' is unquestionably a more accessible and - dare I say - slightly better film than 'Moonlight'. For one thing, it heralds the coming of the new "weird" in African American cinema. In the place of race, sex and class that so often takes centre stage in movies made about black people is pure, sea-swept experimental film-making that's ripples will waver with you long after leaving the cinema.

Even 'Moonlight' succumbed to stereotypes by setting itself amidst Miami's ghettos. 'Waves' subverts this by having the African American family it follows throughout being a middle-class one housed in a sun-lit suburbia not unlike that of the Burnhams in 'American Beauty' (1999). On top of this, the aforementioned angry black male's pushy parental force is not a domineering tiger mother, but a shredded father (Sterling K. Brown) placing pressure on him to achieve in studies, not in wrestling and working out as Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) strives to be best at and the media seems to want him to too.

Fulfilling the pulse-racing promises of 'Luce' (2019), Kelvin Harrison Jr. continues to establish himself as one of the most underrated young actors working today. The strength of his performance here hinges on the juggling of the professional and personal. While he crunches his knuckles and bones on the wrestling mat, a far more violent fight for his life is cranking up on a relationship front as his unruly girlfriend Alexis (Alexa Demie) tip-toes back and forth over her unplanned pregnancy. Something Tyler is dead-set against.

It is with one crackling blow to the face that 'Waves' wrong-foots its audience as Tyler is sent to prison for beating Alexis to death in a nightclub toilets. What initially seemed to tip its hat towards a testosterone-fuming tale of flawed masculinity becomes a wrenching portrait of familial grief; encapsulated through the eyes of younger sister Emily (Taylor Russell). She's understandably devastated by her brother's sentence and seeks solace in Tyler's old wrestling mate Luke (the always excellent Lucas Hedges).

Once again, Director Shults breaks tropes embedded in 5 decades of movie history. There's no malice held by the family towards Emily and Luke's interracial relationship - the concept of which has been poked and prodded at in most notorious fashion in the Samuel L. Jackson-starring 'Lakeview Terrace' (2008). There's also a dramatic shift from tradition in an emotionally drenched late scene where Emily overhears her parents arguing over their role in Tyler's fall from grace. 

Where in the vast majority of pictures it would be the father of the house taking flack for not being there for his children, here it's Brown's hard-nosed dad accusing mother Catherine (Renee Elise Goldsberry) of lacking presence in their son's life. She rebutes him with accusations of putting too much pressure on the young man to succeed. Something which raises tantalising questions about the familial role in Tyler's history of violence. Was he "pushed" one step too far?

As easy as it is to pick apart the family politics at the heart of 'Waves', it needs to be cherished first and foremost as a slice of cinematic experimentalism. A film that adds "weirdness" to the pot of political correctness that largely accompanies movies led by African Americans; prioritising mood and ambience over standard storytelling beats. 

A high watermark of this is unquestionably a rooftop down night car journey through the overheated colour schemes of Miami. The camera spins with the dexterity of a merry-go-round around our characters's stoned, drunken boisterousness with the intention of dizzyingly filming the anarchic moral traffic blocking virtually every young person's rugged road into adulthood.

Underwriting it all is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's score; intricately woven into the film's fabric with the precision of Mica Levi's shotgun-ridden existential explorations in 'Monos' (2019) and the sonic finesse of Ronald Bernstein's work on 'Uncut Gems' (2020). From heart-pumping anxiety to woozy disorientation to gospel-grinding aspiration, the duo's music is as terrifying as a Sci-Fi nightmare, but as grounded in reality as any pre-twentysomething male or female needs to be as they approach the most challenging chapter in their life.

​By all accounts, 'Waves' is a "weird" film. Yet this far from a criticism. In the world of #BlackLivesMatter, its a revelation to find a "black film" with its feet soaked in surrealism rather than simple social realism. Let's champion this "coming of the new weird in African American cinema" and set 'Waves' as an example for other works to follow...