Waves reviews

Post Reply
Big Magilla
Site Admin
Posts: 19318
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
Location: Jersey Shore

Re: Waves reviews

Post by Big Magilla »

FilmFan720 wrote:It's actually a new version from the last few years that Dinklage premiered on stage. His wife wrote the lyrics, with music by The National.
Thanks. Found a N.Y. Times review. Dinklage's wife, Erica Schmidt, who directed the stage version, wrote the adpatatoin. Two members of The National wrote the music while two others wrote the lyrics.

Credits: Adapted by Erica Schmidt from "Cyrano de Bergerac" by Edmond Rostand; Music by Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner; Lyrics by Matt Berninger and Carin Besser; Choreography by Jeff and Rick Kuperman; Directed by Erica Schmidt.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/thea ... klage.html
FilmFan720
Emeritus
Posts: 3650
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 3:57 pm
Location: Illinois

Re: Waves reviews

Post by FilmFan720 »

Big Magilla wrote:Extraordinary acting all around. Kelvin Harrison Jr. was amazing in both this and Luce in the same year, has a small part in Trial of the Chicago 7 and more recently is/was filming the musical Cyrano as Christian to Peter Dinklage's Cyrano de Bergerac in the film directed by Joe Wright with Haley Bennett as Roxanne for a 2022 release. It's probably the Frank Wildhorn London musical version from 2006 rather than either of the Broadway versions.

The 1973 Broadway version with book and lyrics by Anthony Burgess won a Tony for Christopher Plummer. The 1993 version was a Dutch import with additional English lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.
It's actually a new version from the last few years that Dinklage premiered on stage. His wife wrote the lyrics, with music by The National.
"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good."
- Minor Myers, Jr.
Okri
Tenured
Posts: 3345
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:28 pm
Location: Edmonton, AB

Re: Waves reviews

Post by Okri »

Lol, thanks Greg.
Big Magilla
Site Admin
Posts: 19318
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
Location: Jersey Shore

Re: Waves reviews

Post by Big Magilla »

Extraordinary acting all around. Kelvin Harrison Jr. was amazing in both this and Luce in the same year, has a small part in Trial of the Chicago 7 and more recently is/was filming the musical Cyrano as Christian to Peter Dinklage's Cyrano de Bergerac in the film directed by Joe Wright with Haley Bennett as Roxanne for a 2022 release. It's probably the Frank Wildhorn London musical version from 2006 rather than either of the Broadway versions.

The 1973 Broadway version with book and lyrics by Anthony Burgess won a Tony for Christopher Plummer. The 1993 version was a Dutch import with additional English lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.
Greg
Tenured
Posts: 3285
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 1:12 pm
Location: Greg
Contact:

Re: Waves reviews

Post by Greg »

Okri wrote:Not gonna lie, Sterling K. Hayden's conversations to his son could've been written by my dad. . .
You mean Sterling K. Brown?
Okri
Tenured
Posts: 3345
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:28 pm
Location: Edmonton, AB

Re: Waves reviews

Post by Okri »

I have to admit I'm a bit more mixed than dws, but I'd echo his overall recommendation.

That said, I nearly turned it off after 15 minutes. It's so visually hyperbolic (also, if anyone sticks their legs out of a moving vehicle while driving, I'm walking) and overwrought. I love Paul Thomas Anderson circa Mangolia more than most, but holy hell. I didn't know much of the plot or structure, but I really wasn't prepared to watch a movie with that tone. It doesn't settle but as I adjusted, I clicked more with it. Not gonna lie, Sterling K. Hayden's conversations to his son could've been written by my dad (without the sporting aspect) and they definitely ring true to life (the notes speech in particular). I'm not sure I like where it went with the son's story at all, though. It just seemed to be too much.

But that second half was very well done. I'll echo dws on Taylor Russell - she really is terrific. I would've loved the film, I think, if it spent more time with her story. It doesn't lose its grandeur, exactly, but it doesn't feel as overdone and the details feel lived in and deeply felt (the manatees!). It stays thoughtful about its characters, and the characters themselves are thoughtful (that text she sends her mom just sends me)

So yeah, check it out. Maybe not worth that initial salvo of reviews it got, but definitely worth your time.
dws1982
Emeritus
Posts: 3791
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 9:28 pm
Location: AL
Contact:

Re: Waves reviews

Post by dws1982 »

I'm going to be kind of vague on this one. I went in knowing very few plot specifics (I knew it was about a family navigating tragedy and forgiveness or something) and for me not knowing what was coming paid off in spades.

On a basic plot level, I'll concede that it's not anything wildly original--a lot of the plot points you've seen in other indies--but Trey Edward Shults takes a bold, audacious approach to the material and to the characters. I know some viewers will have zero patience for that approach--what's the point taking a standard indie and playing it at the operatic level?, they might ask. I understand that, and in a different mindset, I might have come out thinking the same thing. All I know is how I reacted today.

The first half (it is divided into two very distinct halves) may lose some people right away. In the hands of a lesser director, I do think it would feel like it wallows in misery--it throws a lot at Tyler, the protagonist--but call me stupid, I never had a clear idea where it was going. Shults kept me completely unsure of what would happen, and it's one of the few mainstream films I can think of where I genuinely had a feeling that anything could happen, that it could go anywhere, that it could become any kind of movie. Like I said, it does throw several different things at the protagonist, many of which could've easily fueled the plot, but most of those things don't play out the way you would expect. When the first act finally does reach its climax, Shults manages to keep so many characters and plot threads and emotions in play that I was practically breathless. Easily one of the great movie sequences of the year.

The second half plays out in a much more measured, subdued manner than the first half. It's nearly impossible to discuss the second half in much detail at all because its plot is fueled so extensively by the first half. So what I will say is that Taylor Russell, who anchors the second half, as Emily, Tyler's sister, is phenomenal, and it's insane to me that she is not at the very center of the Supporting Actress conversation. (Although she might make my ballot in Lead, I know she's being campaigned in Support, and I understand the placement.) The whole ensemble is excellent really, but especially that core family, played by Kelvin Harrison Jr., Russell, Sterling K. Brown, and Renee Elise Goldsberry who are all so believable as a family with a shared--and complicated--history.

This is also one of the few times that utilizing multiple aspect ratios--and Shults uses at least five--didn't bother me. It usually bothers me because the way films are projected now, 2.35:1 films are usually projected with black bars on a 16:9 screen. So if you go from 16:9 to 2.35:1, you aren't "opening up" the film at all. (Movies like The Horse Whisperer could do this and have it work because the film was actually projected on a 2.35:1 screen, so the image really did get much bigger.) Shults starts the film in 1.85:1, but through the first half he goes to 2.35:1 (by putting black bars on the screen) and then, finally, to what appeared to be a Ben-Hur-level widescreen as Tyler's world seemed to be closing in on him him. He also plays around with aspect ratios in the second half--much of it is in 1.37:1--although I'm honestly not sure if the switching aspect ratios works as well in the second half as it does in the first. (Mainly because I don't know that it's thematically necessary in the second half, where it absolutely is in the first half.)

Interested to hear what others think. I don't expect this to be unanimously loved, but I thought it was pretty excellent--a work of real ambition and real talent--and easily one of the top films of the year for me.
Sabin
Laureate Emeritus
Posts: 10747
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 12:52 am
Contact:

Re: Waves reviews

Post by Sabin »

This one is getting a lot of love. At first, I thought it might be confined to the Indie Spirit realm but then I looked at A24's upcoming roster. Their strongest bets might be this one (or The Farewell).
"How's the despair?"
Mister Tee
Tenured Laureate
Posts: 8637
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Waves reviews

Post by Mister Tee »

As dws mentioned elsewhere, this got truly exceptional response. I didn't post till now because 1) initially, it wasn't on my radar and 2) I've heard people describe it as YA, and such films -- however praised -- haven't really done much of an Oscar nature of late. But, we'll see if this one's different.


https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/revie ... ew-1235090

https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/w ... 203319165/
Post Reply

Return to “2019”