Exploring Love and Grief's Diverse Aspects: An Intimate Testimony
American director, writer, producer, and actor Trey Shults has made a name for himself with his latest film, Waves. The deeply personal project, which won the John Cassavetes Award at Indy Spirit and Best Directorial Debut from the National Board of Review, delves into the complexities of love and loss.
Shults, who dropped out of business management to pursue a career in film, made his directorial debut in 2010 with the short film "Mother and Son." His first feature, Krisha, was an emotional re-telling of a real-life incident about a family reunion affected by alcoholism.
Waves, however, is a uniquely bifurcated movie, split into two distinct segments and conjoined by a virtuoso middle passage. The film centers on an African-American family living in South Florida, and it serves as an examination of parental pressure and the limitations of parental love.
Sterling K. Brown, who plays the stern and uncompromising patriarch Ronald Williams, says his character's approach with his son is rooted in the belief that he has to be hard on him so the world is not harder on him. The film also stars Taylor Russell, Alexa Demie, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as the family members grappling with their own demons.
Waves places a strong emphasis on music, with the narrative largely synchronized to contemporary songs and an original score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The sound engineer who supported the Academy Award-winning duo at Waves is Bethany Whisenant.
Shults' second feature, It Comes At Night, was also a family drama weaved into a genre film. The movie, produced by Dave Kaplan (It Follows) and financed by A24, stars Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Riley Keough, and Chris Abbott.
In Waves, Shults has crafted a uniquely structured story of American life, tracing the different trajectories and coping strategies of two South Florida siblings searching for meaning and identity in the wake of trauma. The film is a searing story about a family pushed to the brink of destruction and their eventual rebirth and renewal through love, connection, communication, and atonement.
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