Movie Review: The Way, Way Back.

The Way, Way Back, is a touching coming of age story. It's a charming little film, centered on an awkward teen who learns harsh truths about adult life while coming to grips with himself and overcoming the often painful throes of adolescence. If you're a fan of Fox Searchlight's quirky, mass appeal indie flicks (Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Ruby Sparks, etc.) you'll probably like The Way, Way Back. However, if you were one of those unfortunate geeky souls who struggled to find acceptance as a teen, you might just love this film.

BETA posture in full effect.

Liam James stars as Duncan, the film's uber alienated protagonist. We've all seen pathetic characters in movies before, especially coming of age flicks like this, but James' turn as Duncan in The Way, Way Back takes the cake. His character is so fucking BETA, it was literally painful to watch him onscreen during the first half of the movie. Of course this made his inevitable transformation from hapless loser into, well, a semi functional human being, all the more revelatory. Honestly, watching this kid's performance triggered a flood a nerdy PTSD flashbacks. Duncan's fear of the opposite sex, his isolationist tendencies and blatant self loathing, even his horrible fucking posture, it was almost too much to bear...that's how legit this kid's performance is.

Aside from the uber geek champion of the universe, The Way, Way Back features a stellar supporting cast as well. Steve Carell is cast against type, playing the douche of all douches, AnnaSophia Robb is the enigmatic/tortured hot chick next door that Duncan's character pines over (and she does a daaaamn fine job filling out dAt bikini), Allison Janney steals every scene she's in as the neighborhood lush/cougar. Then, there's Sam Rockwell. He's the wacky water park manager who takes Duncan under his wing and encourages our forlorn protagonist to live, to love, and to break dance. Liam James is the film's tortured soul, but Rockwell is it's pulsing heart. Watching the two interact onscreen together, despite the film's many, and I mean many, "coming of age flick" cliches, felt almost magical at times. Of course, again, I'm kind of biased here. It appears that there is a little Duncan left inside this blackened heart of mine, no matter how much Slayer I pump through the stereo.

Fox Searchlight

In case you missed my previous post (you know, the one directly below this one!), I'll summarize it by saying, I really liked the new film, Martha Marcy May Marlene. It's now in wide release and shouldn't be too hard to track down. It's a Fox Searchlight film. Another in a long line of awesome little films.
Here's a cool montage celebrating highlights from Fox Searchlight's awesome track record:

Here's the list of all the films shown for the curious:

12" - Sexy Beast, 28 Days Later, The Last King of Scotland

30" - The Full Monty, Bend It Like Beckham, In America, The Wrestler, Stealing Beauty, The Darjeeling Limited, Millions, Night Watch

1'07"- Sideways, Sunshine, Waking Ned Devine, The History Boys, Ameila, Little Miss Sunshine, Garden State

1'32" - Thirteen, The Namesake, Titus, Thank You For Smoking, Antwone Fisher, Street Kings, The Dancer Upstairs, The Good Thief, Waitress, 500 Days of Summer

2'00" - Best Laid Plans, Kinsey, The Savages, One Hour Photo, The Good Girl, The Clearing, Quills, Super Troopers, Once, Boys Don't Cry, Whip It, Notorious

2'30" - Slumdog Millionaire, Juno, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Secret Life of Bees, Water, Sideways, Crazy Heart, The Wrestler

3'00" - Fantastic Mr Fox, Stealing Beauty, I ♥ Huckabees, Notes on a Scandal, The Dreamers, Slumdog Millionaire, The Ringer, 500 Days of Summer, The Namesake, Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine


...and that doesn't include recent films like Black Swan, 127 Hours, Cyrus, The Tree of Life, and now, Martha Marcy May Marlene.

*NOTE*
Don't worry, I haven't see a good portion of those films either! But totally enjoyed the ones I did see.