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It’s hard to believe that “The Way, Way Back” sprung from the minds of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, the same guys who co-scripted Alexander Payne’s near-flawless “The Descendants.”
There are surface similarities, as the new film, like Payne’s Hawaii-set drama, is a work of perpetually sunny atmosphere, its shore-town setting juxtaposing narrative conflicts. But Faxon and Rash, making their feature debut as co-directors, deviate far from the humanity of their Oscar-winning effort, delivering an unlikable and unwittingly nasty follow-up, which negates its own attempts at coming-of-age warmheartedness.
The title refers to where 14-year-old Duncan (Liam James) feels he stands in the line of human importance, and also where he sits in his family’s station wagon — the place where Trent (Steve Carell), the irredeemably mean boyfriend of Duncan’s mom, Pam (Toni Collette), confirms that the kid is a “three out of 10.” “The Way, Way Back” seems to think it proceeds to remedy that moment’s chilliness (it’s the opening scene), particularly with a bond that’s formed between Duncan and kindred spirit/surrogate dad Owen (Sam Rockwell), who runs the local water park. But despite the subplot’s sustained tenderness, the film oozes a feeling of icky disconnect, and squanders its cast’s embarrassment of talent.
Ace actors like Rockwell and Allison Janney (who plays boozy neighbor Betty) could make mad, dramedic poetry while reciting takeout menus, but even they struggle to sell the script’s banal snark, which is uttered at lightning speed as if to hide that not much of value is said. Characters tell Duncan to “cut his own path” and such, but the movie also winds up teaching him lots of privileged white elitism, as he gains confidence by learning to dance from some lowly black water-park-goers, and is invited to sneer at weird folks like a cross-eyed kid and a gangly rental clerk (who’s no less off-putting because he’s played by Rash himself).
The poor taste and unfortunate hollowness overtake the movie’s better moments, and its title ultimately points to where it should fall in your Netflix queue.
The Way, Way Back
PG-13
One-and-a-half reels out of four
Opens at the Ritz Five July 12
Recommended Rental
Spring Breakers
R
Available Tuesday
Provocative, divisive, and certainly not what you’d expect, Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers” transcends its stunt casting of Disney princesses like Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens as part of its overall skewering of the messages media projects on society. Celebrating seaside debauchery while tearing it to shreds, the film is both dream and nightmare, and as it further empowers its bikini clad heroines, the cautionary tale becomes an unlikely feminist work. One of the year’s best movies.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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