In Waves
Some things arrive in waves: sunlight, joy, the pounding surf, but also loss and grief. Director Phuong Mai Nguyen’s animated adaptation of AJ Dungo’s award-winning 2019 graphic novel unfolds as a story of young love between two teenagers: AJ, a shy skateboarder and aspiring artist (voiced by Will Sharpe), and Kristen (Stephanie Hsu), a self-confident surfer. The usual fears of parental reproach and peer pressure challenge their growing intimacy that is further tested by the emergence of a life-threatening illness. Nguyen’s exquisite visual sensibility is on display on multiple levels: through the vibrant colors of present-day SoCal life, the black-and-white line drawings from AJ’s sketchbooks, and the soft tones of an imagined past life among a group of native Hawai’ians living at the water’s edge. A soundtrack from French composers Oklou and ROB beautifully complements the imagery to an exquisitely indelible effect. —KD Davis
Director/s
