Watch or Pass: Waves

Showing posts with label Waves. Show all posts

Friday, July 17, 2020

What to Watch This Weekend: July 17, 2020

The Fun, Indie Road Trip: Easy Does It (Digital)

Easy Does It is a breath of fresh indie air. The film's cast of quirky, fun characters, entertaining story, style, and fantastic music fuels a wonderfully enjoyable road trip! For more information, check out our review!

The Quirky, Colorful Japanese Dark Comedy: We Are Little Zombies (Digital)
We Are Little Zombies has a flashy, distinctive style and a dark comedy story fueled by youthful counterculture and a social media obsessed lesson. It will not be for everyone, but it is a unique enough experience to make it worth checking out. For more information, check out our review!

For The Hamilton or Hip Hop Lover: We Are Freestyle Love Supreme (Hulu)
We Are Freestyle Love Supreme is a beautiful documentary about friendship and love, with some amazing performances and lyrical feats to keep you entertained. For more information, check out our review!

The Suspenseful Descent Into An Asylum: Into the Dark: The Current Occupant (Hulu)

Into the Dark: The Current Occupant takes a convincing cast deep into the depths of an insane asylum for a creepy, brutal stay with the potential president. For more information, check out our review!

The Emotional Family Roller Coaster: Waves (Showtime)

Waves is simply a treat: an emotional roller coaster about a suburban black family with phenomenal acting, insightful writing, and a story that demonstrates the folly and boundless optimism of youth. For more information, check out our review!

For The Gamer In Your Life: Guns Akimbo (Amazon)

Guns Akimbo is a thoroughly enjoyable video game-style movie with a ridiculously entertaining premise and plenty of video game effects and references to make sure you don’t say game over. For more information, check out our review!

For The Action Fan: Mission Impossible: Fallout (Hulu)

Tom Cruise is still one of the greatest action stars and Mission Impossible: Fallout cements that. The movie is exciting, tense, and action filled, with some big explosions, insane sequences, and a plot that will keep you guessing.

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Deal: Digital Movie Deals for May 24, 2020

Here is a collection of digital movie deals to help keep you entertained while you quarantine. There are some great choices here. We have some Disney classics in 4K for the kiddos (if you don't already subscribe to Disney+). Those movies are Movies Anywhere will port to your linked iTunes, Amazon, Microsoft, Google Play, and VUDU accounts. And we have some 4K 99 cent rentals of recent movies that will give you a lot of entertainment for a little bit of money!

$10 Disney Movies (Movies Anywhere) [fandangonow.com]

99 cent rentals [fandangonow.com]

This site contains affiliate links. //Commerce or this site may be compensated when you click through links on our site.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Review: Waves

Release date: November 15, 2019
Running time: 135 minutes
Starring: Taylor Russell, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Alexa Demie

Waves follows a suburban black family that seems to have everything going for it, but a series of misfortunes derails what used to be a perfect life. How this family deals with these misfortunes, and the real emotional connections between them form the core of this movie. And what a movie. The emotions in this film are raw, mixed, explosive, and altogether very human.

Waves just does everything right. It is an emotional roller coaster, and a lot of that is helped by some stellar acting. The entire family is amazing, headlined by Kelvin Harrison Jr. as their young son, who has the world in his hands. He exhibits so much emotion, both good and bad, that it is a treat to watch. He really carries much of the film and forms the crux of the plot. His character exhibits so much about growing up: with high expectations and a feeling of invincibility, and of knowing that only you can fix the problems before you. His sister, Taylor Russell, is a very different character, but likewise shows the depths of emotion that our youth experience. Her father, Sterling K. Brown, is simply phenomenal as a father who has a strong emotional core but also is a relentless head of the household pushing his son to be the best he can be. His mixed character of a loving, devoted father who is also disciplined and demanding is a very interesting one to watch. And some of his writing and the lessons he gives to his family are insightful. Seriously, I loved seeing a family that talked and interacted like this; it highlights some really great dialog and also good examples of people who have different approaches to very difficult situations.

Waves's story helps to create this emotional roller coaster, with very high highs and very low lows. It rolls back and forth like the waves that give this movie its title. The story demonstrates both the folly and boundless optimism of youth. And this is helped along by some some a really wonderful soundtrack. It has good, modern music to help set the scenes, but it also has fantastic timing. During one truly emotional scene, the beats on the soundtrack were matched up with the sounds happening around the characters that really added a lot to the experience. And the cinematography is also amazing, with a very economical and deliberate shot choice. Scenes are composed to have exactly what they need to tell the story and are beautifully chosen. Also, the use of lighting helps immensely, especially during the scenes where police are on the scene. Their flashing lights illuminate the characters perfectly when needed.

Waves is simply a treat: an emotional roller coaster about a suburban black family with phenomenal acting, insightful writing, and a story that demonstrates the folly and boundless optimism of youth.

Watch it.

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