In Waves, based on AJ Dungo’s acclaimed 2019 graphic memoir of the same name, is a visually striking and also incredibly emotional debut for filmmaker Phuong Mai Nguyen. It’s also the kind of movie that reminds you that life is short, and that the only thing that matters, deep down, is the time you spend with the people you love.
Featuring the voices of Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) and Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once), In Waves is both a love story, a tale about identity, and a look at the things we carry with us and how we deal with adversity. It will grab you with beautiful visuals and a story that makes it easy to feel the message it’s trying to tell, and then it will deliver an emotional gut-punch that will leave you reaching for those tissues.
But when I say bring tissues, I don’t mean it in the bad way. I don’t mean it in the ‘it will destroy you’ but, it won’t touch you kinda way. Some movies are like that. You’re crying because things are sad, not because you feel a connection. In this, the tissues are needed because the story feels very close to our hearts.
If you’ve read the source material, you might already know where this is going. But In Waves isn’t the kind of tale that’s going to deliver a twist. It’s not trying to trick you. It is, in fact, not even trying to make you sad. This isn’t the kind of animated movie that feels like a fable, complete with a moral for you to learn. No, this is just about life.
In many ways, life is like the waves Kristen teaches AJ how to navigate. The ocean comes and goes. Life comes and goes. Sometimes things are looking up, sometimes they’re looking down, and there’s little we can do in the meantime other than try to surf them, and hope that we will get to the shore safe and sound. Well, that, and hope that when we look back, the people we love will still be with us.
So yeah, I was a little sad watching this. I needed the tissues. But I also felt like I needed the lesson, even if the movie wasn’t trying to give me a lesson. Those are, after all, the best kind of movies.
In Waves screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.
