WAVES Review: Love Covers All

Trailers often don’t do films any justice. After I watched the trailer for Trey Edward Shults’ drama Waves, I was very intrigued, but just as informed about its plot as I was before I’d watched it. And that’s how it should be. It’s an extremely visually stunning trailer. If the sweeping cinematography and crooner Frank Ocean’s silky smooth vocals—indicative of the masterful use of music in the film—isn’t enough to entice you, I don’t know what will. But despite the beauty of the trailer, this film is so much more than that. It’s not possible to capture the epic, emotional journey that viewers are taken on during this tale of love and forgiveness within a three minute clip.

Waves is a deeply moving and impactful film that stays with you long after you’ve seen it. The film, which was selected by the National Board of Review as one of the ten best films of 2019, was distributed by A24, the award-winning independent entertainment company which has forged a name for itself for its groundbreaking, signature films. Waves follows a suburban black family in Southern Florida, centered around the life of protagonist Tyler Williams—played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.—a popular high school senior and serious varsity wrestling athlete. The audience watches as he navigates the pressures of love, adolescent life, being an athlete, and a challenging father-son relationship when a shocking tragedy forever shakes the life of his family.

While developing the semi-fictional, semi-autobiographical film, white director and screenwriter Shults collaborated with actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. who had previously starred in Shults’ It Comes at Night, in order to devise Tyler’s character. Shults worked extensively with Harrison to learn more about his background and upbringing as an African-American teenager in the South and his relationship dynamics with his father and romantic partners in order to better understand what it means to be a black man in America. The film is representative of the time Shults took to craft an authentic story.

Everything in Waves moves fast. The cinematography of the film, notably the spinning camera movement and intimate camera angles, is extremely striking. One of the opening scenes features protagonist Tyler and his girlfriend Alexis—played by Euphoria’s Alexa Demie—zooming down a long, thin strip of Florida highway over water with reckless abandon, the camera follows their various limbs and body parts sticking out of the car windows, complemented by the sounds of their echoing howls and laughter. The wildness, chaos, and freeness of the scene truly capture the essence of youth, promise, and young love, and all the while, the outright dangerousness of the situation has you at the edge of your seat. This scene throws the audience directly into the rapid pace of the film and doesn’t let up. Everything in Waves moves fast, until it doesn’t. Everything changes when tragedy strikes, leaving the audience reeling.

The film is uniquely structured into two distinct parts, told from two different perspectives in what Shults describes as a “subjective, immersive experience.” There are several parallels in the cinematography of the first and second parts of the film, and one of them is the skillful way that the camera angles are used to allow audiences to feel involved in the authentic and vulnerable one-on-one conversations between characters. The structure of the film allows audiences to come to terms with what happens when we are pushed to the limit and tested in all senses of the word. We are reminded of the ephemerality of life and the need to cherish and value each and every single moment for what it brings to us. The balance between intensity and quiet reflection is captured in the scenes. The film features the juxtaposition of different images, such as flames of a campfire and intense verses from rapper Kendrick Lamar’s “Backstreet Freestyle,” which contrasts greatly with the scenes featuring the cool-toned, tranquil and gentle scenery of the waves and beach.

Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor (and NYU Tisch alum) Sterling K. Brown does not disappoint with his commendable performance as a patriarch whose assertive and disciplined nature provides a sharp contrast to the more jovial father figure he plays in the hit series This Is Us. The true stars of the film are young newcomer talents Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Taylor Russell who play Tyler and Emily Williams respectively. Both Russell and Harrison were able to bring to life authentic and accurate portrayals of teen angst and anguish. Russell’s stellar performance garnered her a Gotham Award for Breakout Star.

Shults has a very masterful way of establishing characters and relationships, effortlessly moving characters from the background of the film to its foreground. Characters we have overlooked surprise us when Shults redefines their relationship with other characters in the world of the film and transforms how we as an audience understand and see them. A lot of this can be attributed to the thoughtful dialogue he has written and the gradual unraveling of the story thread. With a single line of dialogue, within a split second of action, everything that we’ve seen or established as fact can change.

Color and lighting are used not only as a thematic tool but also as a transitional tool. There’s the bright, almost blinding, yellow light at the opening sequence as a panting young woman bikes away from the camera. The contrasts between light and dark and levels of brightness vary and develop over the course of the story. A notable moment is the pulsating lights during a scene at a party, where flashes of reds and blues build up anticipation yet distort and warp our understanding of reality and time. There’s also a wash of red over the screen that fades into black which marks our transition from part one of the film to part two. This use of “waves” of color transitions evolves in the second portion of the film to mark shifts in mentality, feeling, and time.

The music in Waves has a life of own. The Hip-hop-R&B infused soundtrack, featuring artists such as Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar, is thematic as well as narrative. It serves as an embodiment of the psychological and emotional state of our protagonists, following the experiences they go through and helping us transition through moments. 

Waves is a breathtakingly beautiful film, representative of the cycle of change in life. “Love covers all,” a message stated in the film encompasses one of its most central themes. In this story of family and coming together we see what people are willing and capable of forgiving and loving despite everything. The characters show us that there is always a place for vulnerability and acceptance. Shults has successfully created an extremely human masterpiece, demonstrating that life doesn’t just stop when tragedy strikes, people must find a way to pick up the pieces and heal. This heart wrenching and powerful film is a must-see.