Shadows on the Wall

In Waves

dir Phuong Mai Nguyen
scr Fanny Burdino, Samuel Doux
prd Priscilla Bertin, Judith Nora, Nick Shumaker
voices Will Sharpe, Stephanie Hsu, Johnny Young, Griffin Puatu, Alejandro Antonio Ruiz, Yeni Alvarez
original voices Rio Vega, Lyna Khoudri, Paul Kircher, Gauthier Battoue, Birane Ba, Ethel Houbiers
release Bel 1.Jul.26,
US/UK 27.Nov.26
26/Belgium 1h30

CANNES FILM FEST
TORONTO FILM FEST

Is it streaming?

Based on the graphic book by AJ Dungo, which recounts his own life story, this animated dramatic film not only has an original look to it, but the narrative itself carries unusually honest emotions that are rooted in real life. This makes it soaringly engaging and also wrenchingly moving. Director Phuong Mai Nguyen has a gift for pulling the audience in with earthy characters and beautifully tactile visuals.

In California, 16-year-old skater dude AJ (Sharpe) is hanging out with his best pal Cisco (Ruiz) when he meets Kristen (Hsu) at a rave. She's a surfer who won't accept his fear of the ocean, immediately taking him for a lesson. Then just as their romance blossoms, Kristen develops a serious illness that claims one of her legs. Defiant, she returns to her surfboard with the help of AJ and friends Eon (Young) and Jeff (Puatu). Years later, AJ graduates from art college and gets a job offer in New York. And Kristen's illness returns.

With everything seen through AJ's observant perspective, this film is strikingly intimate, using tiny details to add an authentic kick to each scene. The animated imagery has a smooth, water-colour style, and it combines almost photo-real movement with gorgeous textures, most impressively where water is concerned. All of this cleverly echoes patterns that run through AJ's artwork. The film is also intriguingly punctuated with brief black and white sequences that glimpse historical surfing culture in Hawaii.

It's remarkable that the script avoids sentimentality, even though it takes such an openly emotional journey. This is partly thanks to Sharpe's and Hsu's open-handed vocal work, which never tries to ramp up the feelings. As a result, the characters face a situation as it evolves over many years, mixing joy and hope with pain and tragedy. And it continually circles around to the power of the ocean, the exhilaration of surfing combined with the persistence of the waves.

All of this is far too serious for children, which may make audiences ask why this is an animated film. But its origins as a comic-style memoir and the sheer artistry of the animation answer that question as it propels us through a strikingly vivid odyssey about love, passion and, yes, grief. And along the way, the narrative also has quietly pointed things to say about friendship, romance, families and the need to sometimes simply get outside yourself to enjoy the purity of the world around us.

themes, language 21.Sep.26

R E A D E R R E V I E W S

Still waiting for your comments ... don't be shy.