There is one moment in Waves where I let out a quiet “Oh Shit” (You’ll know when you watch it). This non-compliance with the usual BFI’s morally coded audience thankfully wasn’t disapproved as I wasn’t the only “Shit”-ter. There were many audible gasps and ooh’s and one woman who shouted “OH FUCK!”. If a film-snob-cinema audience is releasing that sort of reaction, then the film is certainly doing something right in it’s experimentation of sight and sound.

Waves primarily follows black middle class teenager Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and his perfect life. He’s doing great as the wrestling jock. He has a stable family and is in a happy relationship. However, things soon start to go wrong. His relationship with his father (Sterling K. Brown) is straining as he is being pushed too much. This happens alongside his shoulder joint becoming worn down meaning his wrestling days may be over. His girlfriend (Alexa Demie) is also worried she is pregnant. This perfect cocktail see’s him take a spiralling journey into madness.

Tylers story is told with fantastic flair. The opening shot of him and his girlfriend, is a panning long take from inside the car spinning around showing them interact with one another. The sky is blue, the music is upbeat. They’re both smiling and laughing as Tyler is carefree driving with one foot out of the window. The choice to have the camera doing long takes and being inside the car shows the intimacy that Waves wants you to have as you invest in their lives.

This isn’t just done through the use of light and music. The sound editing is brilliant as well. In the wrestling, once Tyler has a bad shoulder, you hear every landing and you feel the impact. Each knock hurts. The combination of all of these factors lead to the “Oh Shit” moment beautifully.

We transition from this upbeat soundtrack to a fast moving, heavier soundtrack with real vitriol. The colours become darker with muted oranges and navy blues replacing the previous bright colour scheme. The aspect ratio shifts from a widescreen hapiness to a 4:3 almost square box to show his isolation. As Tyler spirals, his behaviour feels more erratic. He’s not driven by a narrative. You still have hope for him that he can find his way back to normality as you can’t predict what he’s going to do. This volatility alongside director Trey Shults’ use of a every element of a film maker’s toolbox lead to an incredible crescendo of madness. This is exactly what I wanted Joker to be like!

As we were getting to the end of the film, I sat there and thought that my one criticism was that the rest of the cast was underused, especially Tyler’s sister Emily (Taylor Russell). Then Shults answers my prayers.Emily is dealing with the events of the film so far, going from secondary timid character to lead in her own right. This quick wrap up in fact turns into a whole other half of the film which has a totally different pace and direction.

This second half explores Emily’s dynamics with her father as well as her relationship with new boyfriend Luke (Lucas Hedges). Luke has father issues and his father is dying. His decisions around him are cleverly paralleled to Emily’s dilemmas with some wonderful show don’t tell storytelling. We get a clever see don’t tell story which makes us think back, still suffering from the first half.

The whole second act feels more conventional and story driven. The slower pace and more conventional atmosphere make the first half feel a distant dream as you deal with the metaphorical whiplash. Interspersed in this act are still the long-time shots and close ups which provide the intimacy we are accustomed to in this film. While this second act isn’t as exhilirating as the first one, it’s still a welcome compliment.

Summary

With long camera shots, great music choices, brilliant sound effects and fantastic lighting, Waves creates an intimate and emotional cinematic experience using all the tools at its disposal. Such brave film making deserves high-praise. [Grade: A]