Waves

First Hit: I’m not always a fan of revolving cameras and frame sizing to create a feeling, but this time it worked.

In an opening scene, Alexis (Alexa Demie) and Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) are driving in a car. They are young, the music is blaring, and they are drunk on their love for each other and being young and alive. The camera keeps going in circles creating a feeling of erratic motion, and that something is going to happen. I kept holding on to my armrest thinking that an accident was coming soon. It didn’t.

This opening scene gave me a sense that the film was going to be a roller coaster of feelings because of all the joy in this scene and the spirit of impending doom riding in the background.

Tyler lives with his father, Ronald (Sterling K. Brown), his stepmother Catharine (Renee Elise Goldsberry), and sister Emily (Taylor Russell). They are clearly middle class, and as a black man Ronald is very proud of his work ethic, what he’s achieved, and makes a point of instilling his driven work ethic in his children.

Tyler is on the wrestling team in high school. Ronald is very engaged with his son’s wrestling. He works with Tyler by practicing wrestling moves in their garage. He pushes him to be the best wrestler on the team. They not only practice wrestling moves in their garage; they also lift weights together, and they challenge each other while working out and wrestling. In one telling scene during a school wrestling match, after Tyler pins his opponent for a win, his father tells him if he would have made different moves, he would have pinned his opponent 20 seconds sooner.

So it wasn’t only about the win, but how fast and what moves Tyler performed in each match that was challenged by Ronald. What Ronald doesn’t know is that Tyler is hiding a shoulder injury from everyone, and the doctor is quite clear that the injury is so severe that he’ll have permanent damage if he continues to wrestle.

Tyler likes to party with his friends and is very popular at school. He and his girlfriend Alexis spend a lot of time together and are sexually active. During one text message exchange, she tells him her period’s late.

As the film proceeds, the pressure is building up in Tyler; his father is riding him to be better, his shoulder is irreparably damaged, which could cause him to lose his college scholarship, and his girlfriend is pregnant. His drinking is getting worse, he’s smoking more pot, and taking lots of pain pills. His life is spinning out of control.

When Tyler and Alexis go to the abortion clinic, she changes her mind and says she wants to keep the baby. Tyler goes ballistic, they get in a massive fight in the car, and she breaks up with him.

The tension in the film is enhanced by the use of different camera movements, image focus slipping, and color splashes only add to what is about to happen.

Violence breaks out, and Tyler finds a reason to express the rage within and without thinking hurts the people he loves and who love him. The tensions in Tyler’s life build to a point at which he can no longer control them. He commits a violent act, is arrested, and is sentenced to decades in jail.It ends up in an act to which he finds himself arrested and sentenced to jail.

Shortly after that, Tyler’s sister Emily, who has been nearly a forgotten person in the family, meets Luke (Lucas Hedges). The early scenes of their meeting and getting to know each other are magnificently done. They feel real and authentic to the characters. Both are damaged in different ways. Luke because of his father’s alcoholic rages and because his father left him and his mother. Emily, because she’s the forgotten one in the family and is now embarrassed because she’s the sister of her once-popular imprisoned brother.

When the film moves into this new story, the relationship between Luke and Emily, I started wondering where it was headed. Then I started worrying about Emily because she began to party and experiment with pot in the same way her brother did. I thought more trouble was brewing.

However, the story unfolds towards the power of forgiveness and speaking openly and truthfully. As Emily supports Luke in his healing, she, herself, is being healed.

I am not a fan of camera movement becoming a significant part of the story, but for some reason it worked. I could have used less of the swirling circular motions, but it did add to the sensation the film was attempting to make.

Also, as I recently wrote, I reviewed a different film recently, I’m not a big fan of changing the image size on the screen as a way to affect the viewer. But again, here it worked. At times it was letterbox style, other times almost portrait, like what one sees from a phone video, and at other times it was full screen. This is a story about a family on a journey through love, tough times, tragedy, and forgiveness, it worked.

Harrison Jr. was compelling as the young man attempting to live up to his father’s ideals, failing, and spiraling out of control. The angst leading to his lashing out is probably familiar to many a young man. Russell was sublime as Harrison’s younger sister, who had to come out of the shadows to be seen and own her own life. Demie was wonderful as Harrison’s girlfriend, who didn’t want to be controlled and wanted her feelings to be heard and honored. Brown as Harrison’s dad was terrific. His portrayal of a man who was blinded by his own work and not seeing the effect it was having on his wife and kids was convincing. Goldsberry was terrific as the stepmother who empathized with the kids and struggled to find her place when her husband refused to be empathic to her pain. Hedges was excellent as Russell’s boyfriend, who reached out in her time of need, and in turn was supported by her when he needed to deal with his own past. Trey Edward Shults wrote a strong and powerful script which he then in-turn directed. As a director he knew what he wanted, and I, for one, liked what he did.

Overall: This film captured the power of love and forgiveness over the expression of anger.

Luce

First Hit: I left the theater slightly confused about this film, and today, the following day, I’m still confused.

The confusion about this film is around the question; what was the coalesced point?

To set the stage, Luce is a young black senior in High School. His parents Amy and Peter Edger (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth respectively) adopted Luce as a seven-year-old orphan boy from a war-torn country. Amy couldn’t pronounce his name, so Peter suggested giving him a new name, they came up with Luce, which means light.

Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is smart, and from the beginning of the film, he’s shown in this light by always doing his homework, getting excellent grades, being head of the debate team, and giving amazing speeches. Despite this, there is a sense and feeling that all this is a show by Luce, that there is an underlying agenda. So what is it?

This film touches on multiple issues, but because it doesn’t focus on one, the point is never crystallized.

Is the film about Harriet Wilson’s (Octavia Spencer) perceived dislike for Luce and others? After completing a writing assignment where the students were to take on a character and create a story, Luce chose to write about revolution and violence. Upon reading this, Wilson goes into his locker, finds and removes a bag filled with illegal fireworks. Attempting a discussion with Luce turns into an antagonistic argument. Discussing this with Amy, Wilson shares her concern that something may be going on with Luce and that they need to pay attention.

Amy and Peter’s discussion of this issue leads to highlighting some of the difficulties in their relationship through how they each attempt to elicit the truth from Luce but fail. His response is that he loves the subject of the class but Wilson is out to get and demean people.

That Wilson is black, Luce is black, and Luce’s closest friends are of mixed races. Was the film about racism? Yes and no. The film talks about racism, and in a scene when Luce enters his teacher’s home, Wilson gives him a sure fired lecture on what it means to be black and black in today’s society. So is this what the film is about?

Is the film about the truth? The film addresses fact in multiple ways, from the absence of telling or sharing information to outright lies. When Amy and Peter attempt to get information about the paper, and even the fireworks from Luce, there is a dance of misguided parries of questions. That Amy and Peter speak being truthful, the not sharing of the information they know with Luce is deceitful in its own way. When Amy and Peter lie in front of Wilson and the school principal, truth flies out the window.

Is the film about manipulation and control? Towards the end of the film, Wilson brings this subject out into the open by stating that Luce might be manipulating all of their behaviors. This is a good step in the movie because I, and maybe others in the audience, suspect this from the very beginning. However, Luce, when needing to seem sincere and apologetic, he makes his behavior very believable.

There are examples (or instances) of manipulation, one being with Luce’s possible girlfriend Stephanie Kim (Andrea Bang). At one point, Amy seeks to speak with Stephanie about what happened to her that caused Wilson to demean her in class. Stephanie begins telling a story about an event at a party. Her telling the story is powerfully believable. But was it real or was this really manipulation of Amy by Stephanie? Or, was all of this created by Luce? Was any of this genuine, part of it correct, or was the subject a way of manipulating people?

When Wilson queues up Stephanie to share the truth of a sexual incident at a meeting with Amy, Peter, Luce, and the school principal, what happens appears to be manipulated. And is it manipulation by Luce when he calls Amy “mother” or “Amy” based on what is going on at that moment?

The whole film is always on the edge of sharing the truth about Luce, the strain between Amy and Peter about adopting versus having their own child. The law around the searching personal property, how some people seem to have a light shined on them naturally, or is it really earned? How race factors into perceptions of people.

The ending gives little clue to the real intent of the film and only slightly more about Luce.

Harrison Jr. is very successful at creating an enigma of a person. His smooth transitions in a single scene from accepted kindness to a penetrating stare and back again were excellent. Watts was solid in this role as a mother, protector, and caring, engaged parent. Roth was fascinating as the father who carried resentment of not having his own child but also loving his adopted son, Luce. Spencer was almost as enigmatic as Luce. At times, I believed she had a slight grudge, and at other times, she felt thoroughly sincere. Bang was convincing in her telling the story of an incident to Amy, yet also elusive in what her true feelings were. J.C. Lee wrote the screenplay from his play. I’m not sure why I ended up with confusion after seeing this film. Was the basis of my confusion the screenplay or the direction by Julius Onah.

Overall: The film had promise, and I’m not sure what it delivered.