And if you let it, Waves will wash over you—leaving you changed, salt-stung, and achingly alive.
Visually, the film is a stunner. Shot in a radical 1.85:1 aspect ratio with shifting color palettes (saturated warmth to cool, clinical clarity), the cinematography (by Drew Daniels) becomes a character in itself. The use of split-screen, slow-motion, and abrupt cuts doesn’t feel showy—it feels necessary, like the chaos of a breaking mind. waves 2019
Waves is a masterpiece of empathy without easy answers. Shults refuses to demonize Tyler or sanctify his family. Instead, he asks: How does a home built on love become a prison? How does a family survive an unforgivable act? Sterling K. Brown delivers a career-best performance as the father—a man who mistakes control for care, whose final breakdown is as shattering as any tragedy. And if you let it, Waves will wash
To watch Waves is to feel it. Long before the credits roll, Trey Edward Shults’s audacious, heart-wrenching drama has seeped into your bones—a cinematic experience less concerned with plot than with pure, unfiltered emotion. It is a film of two halves, two storms, and one family trying not to drown. The use of split-screen, slow-motion, and abrupt cuts
Here’s a write-up for WAVES (2019), written in a style suitable for a film review, analysis, or personal reflection. Director: Trey Edward Shults Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr., Taylor Russell, Sterling K. Brown, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lucas Hedges