Waves

'The road to hell is paved with good intentions' is a proverb dating back to the 11th century’s French Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. That’s perhaps the best way to describe Trey Edward Shults’ saga about an upper-middle-class, African-American family in suburban South Florida. Ronald Williams (Sterling K. Brown) is a domineering father who thinks he’s doing all the right things to keep his volatile 18-year-old son Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) on the right track. When Tyler decides to become a star wrestler, his demanding dad not only rigorously works out with him but insists that the family, including his wife Catherine (Renee Elise Goldsberry) and Tyler’s younger sister Emily (Taylor Russell), attend every meet. Feeling his own voice stifled, Tyler keeps a serious shoulder injury secret, stealing his dad’s Oxycodone for the pain. And when he discovers his girlfriend Alexis (Alexa Demie) is pregnant, Tyler keeps that secret too. Shults’ script structure suddenly changes when tragedy occurs. There’s a tonal shift to quiet, teenage Emily’s perspective, as she builds an emotional relationship with a new boyfriend (Lucas Hedges). Writer/director Trey Edward Shults very slowly builds to the pivotal crisis, weaving a complex, personal web of pain, guilt, love, and forgiveness: 'My dad is an insanely good musician, so he really wanted me to be the best jazz pianist and trumpet player. But the practice and performing (proved so rigorous) - that I finally told him, ‘This is not fun anymore. It’s not a hobby. It makes me resent you…and it’s making me resent this craft.' The result is an anguished, overwrought domestic melodrama, reflecting parent-child pressures. Optional. (S. Granger)