The Way, Way Back - The Review

I've seen a lot of films this year. Blockbusters, dramas, comedies. But while I thrilled as Logan clashed with a giant android in The Wolverine; marvelled at giant robots and their pilots in Pacific Rim, and smiled at the heroes of Kick-Ass 2, I didn't empathise with any of them.

However, rather aptly, The Way, Way Back took me way, way back to being an awkward teenager.

That's one of the few good things about middle age. You can empathise with two generations of characters if they're well defined.

For newcomers it centres on Duncan, a socially awkward 14-year-old who reluctantly goes on summer holiday to a beach house in Cape Cod with mum Pam, her strict boyfriend Trentand his daughter Steph.

At their beach house, we meet boozy neighbour Betty (a scenery-chewing Alison Janney), and her kids, Susanna and Peter.

Could Duncan and Susanna begin an archetypal Summer of '42 style romance? Possibly, but TWWB is about much more.

It's a study in awkwardness, and that gaping hole in a lonely teenager's life desperate to be filled by friends, if not family.

Any teen whose family has been wrecked by divorce should empathise with that huge void caused by a missing dad, brother or both. Basically it sucks, but as a teen it's hard to express how much. 

When Duncan crosses paths with laid back, too-cool-for-school water park manager Owen at the local pizza diner, so begins a beautiful friendship. 

Dad-free teens dream of having a mate as cool as this.

Part big brother, part surrogate father, Owen is one of the year's most beloved characters. 

He has the wit and delivery of Tony Stark, and more than once I thought the sublime Sam Rockwell must be a shoo-in for the part if Robert Downey Jnr either prices himself out of the part or, heaven forbid, retires.

New employee Duncan, and the audience are introduced to the park's assorted workers:Caitlyn, Lewis, and Roddy. For our young hero this is a glorious escape from his unhappy domestic life, suffering the presence of love rat Trent, and his mum's boozy friends.

Storywise I could fill in all the blanks, but this is not a hugely plot-centric movie. What it does is capture that glorious feeling of youth, summer, first love, and charts a character arc that is believable and absorbing.

Despite the presence of Steve Carell and Toni Collette, this is not Little Miss Sunshine 2. Yes it's as charming and watchable, but for me far more rewarding.

AnnaSophia Robb dazzles as obligatory cute neighbour Susanna; Liam James is wonderfully awkward as Duncan, while writer/directors Jim Rash and Nat Faxon also pop up as supporting characters Lewis and Roddy.

The best movies are those you have no expectations of. Those whose trailers promise little, but whose rewards are countless.

I tired of Rash and Faxon-scripted The Descendants, but here they hit a home run. 

The glorious New England backdrops don't hurt a bit either, and by the third act we feel we've breathed the same air as these characters.

Like Life of Pi, The Way, Way Back is that rare film which gets under the skin and lingers for days after. 

Some films, like You're Next (which I saw immediately beforehand) aren't worth the price of admission, but for me this made up for it.

It may not have had the tent pole budget of Iron Man 3 or Star Trek Into Darkness, but this mines a richer seam of humour and drama that should touch a chord with teens and forty somethings alike. 

Highly recommended.

 

You're Next - The Review

In the late 1990s, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson turned the horror genre on its head with meta serial killer thriller Scream. 

Chances are you know this already because you've seen it. Most people have, but the usual tropes of the genre are more indestructible than Freddie, Jason and Pinhead combined. 

You’re Next, the 2011 low budget stalk-and-slash thriller (finally getting a national release), owes a debt to Scream and countless other genre classics, but I doubt in 10 years filmmakers will be desperate to emulate its scares.

It opens with a couple having sex, so we know they're going to die; there are no actual opening titles as the first victim’s blood spells out the title on a window. 

Then we meet a rich neighbouring family arriving at their remote vacation house. 

Mother Aubrey hears something upstairs and wants to leave. Husband, Paul, investigates, but in one of the best shocks, is startled by his son, Crispian. 

Paul has a few sons, all of them annoying. 

A day later the other offspring and their partners arrive, and during an annoying family row, one of the gathered is shot with a crossbow bolt. 

Despite the windows suddenly being lethal areas, our shocked and stupid protagonists insist on staying as close to them as possible while screaming. A lot. And when there's no screaming, there's that thunderous score turned up to 11. Foghorns blaring at a wake would have been more welcome. 

Aside from that, I'm not sure what was more annoying, the unconvincing acting, zero family dynamic (even for a dysfunctional clan), or weak script. 

However, a John Carpenter-style theme wasn't bad, albeit over-used. 

On the plus side it is laced with dark humour; a wounded victim with a bolt in his back catching it on lethal piano wire was a nice/nasty touch, and death by kitchen appliance helped puncture the tension bubble in the third act. 

For any thriller, credibility is key and this was sorely lacking any because I didn't care about the characters. 

The key twist is obvious when we discover the animal masked killers' motive. However, the third act does claw back some respectability with a flash camera adding fresh licks to the death by strobe cliche, while a door-operated weapon gag tips its hat to A Nightmare on Elm Street. 

Earlier this year The Purge exploited the ’yuppies under siege’ idea more effectively, only that fell apart in the third act. 

This is the reverse, and despite a drawn out finale, and OTT killings by resourceful Aussie heroine Erin (the film’s saving grace, Sharni Vinson), the result is not a complete waste of time. 

With a better cast and some tighter script editing, this could have been something special. 

As it is, You’re Next is just a 90 minute-plus diversion, little more.