***21^st Century Teen Angst and Alienation- Liam James’ The Way Way Back

 

 

 

DVD Review

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

The Way Way Back, starring Liam James, Steve Carroll, 2013 

Call it them generation of’68, the “me” generation, the millennial generation, generation X,Y, or Z any way you package it the growing of up years of each generation have been filled with more teenage angst and alienation that you  could shake a stick at. And while each generation has its own little sociological quirks, for example today’s average teens are more likely to face their anxieties in single parent homes than say, the generation of ’68, there are many more similarities. Take the film under review, The Way Way Back, definitely a 21^st century teen angst “coming of age” film where this generation of ‘68er found himself uncomfortably squirming in his seat at various points remembering back to some very familiar episodes.        

Now this film is billed as a comedy and in many ways it is but it also contains the raw data of themes that most teens run through-questions of self-esteem and self-identity, close and distant relationships with parents and the adult world generally, and the question of questions for most guys-what makes girls tick (most girls just flip the genders, okay). All of those are questions that our “hero” Duncan (played by Liam James) encounters and has to work through in dealing with his world one summer when he, his mother, Pam, her fairly new boyfriend, Trent (played by Steve Carroll), and his daughter, Steph, pack up to go to Trent’s summer place down in Cape Cod for some fun in the sun.   

Naturally school’s out for the summer so Duncan should be ready from the get-go for fun and checking out the girls at the beach. This thing however starts out as something like a prison camp for the alienated Duncan (including his initial hunched-up physical persona) who still hasn’t resolved the break-up of the family home and his long gone dad and who moreover loathes Trent. And Trent and the summer time adult gang, including Pam, do nothing to alleviate that feeling as they drink and carouse the weeks away. What does alleviate some tensions  is meeting “wild and wooly” mad monk Owen who helps run the waterworks amusement park in town, gives Duncan a summer job and some serious, if at times comical, advise about how to survive until adulthood. Throw in a short, if chaste, relationship with the girl next door ( a fox whom he should have been all over from minute one once she came hither on him but he was too wrapped in the teen angst thing to see that he could have gone that summer route-but we all made those kinds of mistakes) and a scandalous confrontation with Pam and Trent over Trent’s backdoor affair with a neighbor’s wife to add to the pile of wisdom that Duncan figures out by the time that whole crowd leaves early to go home and try to survive until next summer. A few places toward the end were a little too “feel good” but this one is worth watching for the chuckles and the traumas.