Review of The Way Way Back (2013) by Jacob D — 24 Sep 2016

The Way Way Back is the directorial debut of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash who wrote this and The Descendants, and it stars Liam James, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney, Maya Rudolph, and AnnaSophia Robb in a coming-of-age film about a kid and his family going to a summer home and spend time with the family's friends and meeting new friends, even though Duncan (Liam James) didn't want to be there and the mom's boyfriend is a total jerk.

It had been years since I've watched the film, and I remember liking it a lot from it, which the trailers for it doesn't show the full potential that the film have. I haven't seen Liam James in any film, which I also haven't seen Steve Carell act like a jerk to the mother's son while being a bit supportive to the mother, and they both were really good in this.

Toni Collette is good in this, Allison Janney is having fun acting like a blunt drunk, and for Sam Rockwell, he honestly stole the show. He's having a lot of fun of what he usually does, he brings a lot of energy to the film, and he dances in this, which is always a delight to watch.

The movie knows to bring a lot of positive moments, while also putting in serious parts in here that doesn't make it sappy. It has an amount of humor and charm into it that makes the film enjoyable to watch, and with a well written script, has memorable characters that are relevant, and talks with real dialogue that is interesting to listen to.

Stuff like this and Perks of Being a Wallflower are the kind of coming-of-age films that are top notch, and has that kind of replay-ability that I'll never get tired of watching it again and still get a smile out of me.