REVIEW: THE WAY, WAY BACK
I'm a sucker for coming of age movies. "Meatballs," "Stand by Me," "My Girl" just to name a few of my favorites. Perhaps it's because I'm not quite done growing up, so I like seeing other go through with that struggle, if not just to confirm I'm not alone. I've been on a Netflix kick of the show "Freaks and Geeks," entirely devoted to chronicling high school children face obstacles in 1980's Michigan. So high school movies especially are my bread and butter (note "Perks of Being a Wallflower") but give me a story where a kid finds himself in a water park and I'm down. I'm especially down if the co-director/writers/actors/executive producers of the movie Jim Rash and Nat Faxon are involved. They co-wrote one of my favorite films of all time, "The Descendants," the gorgeous Hawaiian set tale of a man coming to grips with his comatose wife.
This is a pretty big 180 from that film, about a boy named Duncan, a child of divorce, sitting in the way, way back of his mother's obnoxious boyfriend's car, when he asks, what is sure to become a staple of this movie, the question that gets the ball rolling, and lets you see what sort of character this movie's villain Trent is: he asks Duncan "What would you consider yourself on a scale of 1-10?" Duncan of course, tries to be modest and fair, saying a "6." Unasked, Trent responds by judging him with half that score. It seems like an almost intolerably cruel thing to say to a child, until you find out later a similar conversation actually happened to Jim Rash, who plays the hilariously mopey Lewis in the film.
Once the awkward car ride is over, and the "family," also consisting of Duncan's good-hearted mother, Trent's viciously nasty daughter, can't even get into their beach house before the boozy neighbor Betty, played by Allison Janney to tipsy perfection, bombards them with stories from her life, whether they like it or not. Trent also reunites with his friends Kip and Joan, who almost permanently reside with Trent in the house. This all makes for insufferable conditions for Duncan, who seems like the type of boy that just wants to hang out with his parents, and enjoy the social freedom from school. Trent seems to have almost beaten him into submission to be his future stepson until he bikes (in one designed for a kindergarten girl) to Water Wizz, a water park where lovable goofs reside, and he meets his mentor that changes everything for him.
I'm going into the plot so much because I really did love this movie, and have thought about it continually since I saw it the other day. While, yes, Liam James has certainly found his breakout role as the socially inept Duncan, this is Sam Rockewell's movie, playing the type of role Bill Murray perfected in the aforementioned "Meatballs," a wisecracking counselor that guides Duncan through his struggles and builds up his confidence where he feels much more than a three. That said, "TWWB" does have those coming of age cliches, unavoidably so: the girl next door, the evil sister with literally no redeeming qualities, the seemingly oblivious mom like those in horror movies that just doesn't hear the evil coming out of Trent's mouth, even as he passive-aggressively barks orders at Duncan.
But even with a few nitpicks here and there this is one of the best movies to come out of this summer, and certainly the movie that's made me laugh the most in some years; just about anything out of Rockwell's mouth is hysterical, nailing the absurdly weird lines I used to hear from summer camp counselors of my own. Plus the ending will make you get up and cheer, wheteher you're in a theater or not, and you'd have to go way, way back in your memory to find a movie that was able to do that.
Rating: 3/4 stars
This is a pretty big 180 from that film, about a boy named Duncan, a child of divorce, sitting in the way, way back of his mother's obnoxious boyfriend's car, when he asks, what is sure to become a staple of this movie, the question that gets the ball rolling, and lets you see what sort of character this movie's villain Trent is: he asks Duncan "What would you consider yourself on a scale of 1-10?" Duncan of course, tries to be modest and fair, saying a "6." Unasked, Trent responds by judging him with half that score. It seems like an almost intolerably cruel thing to say to a child, until you find out later a similar conversation actually happened to Jim Rash, who plays the hilariously mopey Lewis in the film.Once the awkward car ride is over, and the "family," also consisting of Duncan's good-hearted mother, Trent's viciously nasty daughter, can't even get into their beach house before the boozy neighbor Betty, played by Allison Janney to tipsy perfection, bombards them with stories from her life, whether they like it or not. Trent also reunites with his friends Kip and Joan, who almost permanently reside with Trent in the house. This all makes for insufferable conditions for Duncan, who seems like the type of boy that just wants to hang out with his parents, and enjoy the social freedom from school. Trent seems to have almost beaten him into submission to be his future stepson until he bikes (in one designed for a kindergarten girl) to Water Wizz, a water park where lovable goofs reside, and he meets his mentor that changes everything for him.
I'm going into the plot so much because I really did love this movie, and have thought about it continually since I saw it the other day. While, yes, Liam James has certainly found his breakout role as the socially inept Duncan, this is Sam Rockewell's movie, playing the type of role Bill Murray perfected in the aforementioned "Meatballs," a wisecracking counselor that guides Duncan through his struggles and builds up his confidence where he feels much more than a three. That said, "TWWB" does have those coming of age cliches, unavoidably so: the girl next door, the evil sister with literally no redeeming qualities, the seemingly oblivious mom like those in horror movies that just doesn't hear the evil coming out of Trent's mouth, even as he passive-aggressively barks orders at Duncan.But even with a few nitpicks here and there this is one of the best movies to come out of this summer, and certainly the movie that's made me laugh the most in some years; just about anything out of Rockwell's mouth is hysterical, nailing the absurdly weird lines I used to hear from summer camp counselors of my own. Plus the ending will make you get up and cheer, wheteher you're in a theater or not, and you'd have to go way, way back in your memory to find a movie that was able to do that.
Rating: 3/4 stars
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