Review: ‘Waves’ Packs A Punch of Emotions in an Original Vision

A wave is the perfect metaphor for the feeling with which Waves leaves you. It feels like a sudden crash of emotions; the highs and lows of life are all experienced through the lens of an African-American family living in South Florida. Primarily, we are taken inside the lives of the son, Tyler, and daughter, Emily. Throughout the film, they experience hardships that send ripple effects through their communities. Ultimately, the story explores ideas about how to love and forgive in the face of hate.

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Review: ‘Honey Boy’ Paints a Portrait of a Troubled Child Star

Shia LaBeouf is no stranger to public self-reflection. In 2012 it was his being the lone observer of a performance specifically dedicated to implying his purported underlying cannibalistic tendencies. Now, he shows us the story that made a young actor into the polarizing pop culture sensation in his latest feature, Honey Boy. What’s more impressive is LaBeouf’s unbiased recounting of the events preceding his time in rehab. It is during this time that the character based upon LaBeouf, Otis Lort, is given the space to explore his alcoholism and how it is tied to his childhood growing up in the spotlight with a contentious relationship to his father.

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Review: ‘Mid90s’ is a Painstakingly Authentic Coming of Age Tale

Mid90s, Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, is a painstakingly authentic homage to the not-so-distant past. Set in the age of camcorders and Discmans, anachronistic Super 16 film gives a charming air of nostalgia to this grungy ‘coming of age’ tale that follows Stevie (Sunny Suljic), a boy on the verge of adolescence, reconciling his developing identity amongst a rag-tag group of skateboarders in 1990s Los Angeles. With impressive attention to detail, down to the accuracy of 90s Dorito packets and the trash bags, Hill, in a feat of first-time-filmmaking, achieves poignancy and humour in this unconventional period feature.

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