By: Janessa Castro Cruz

‘Waves’ is a young adult film made in 2019. The film is produced by Trey Edward Shults, Kevin Turen and Jim Wilson. The main cast of the movie contains Tyler (played by Kelvin Harrison), Alexis (played by Alexa Demie), Emily (played by Taylor Russel) and Ronald (played by Sterling Brown).

The film starts off with Tyler, it shows his routine and how much pressure is being put on him especially from his dad Ronald. He has a lot of anger built up but his girlfriend Alexis is the only one to keep him at peace. One night, Alexis finds out she’s pregnant, and they plan on getting an abortion but once they get to the clinic, she changes her mind. They leave the place and end up arguing in the car about it which leads to Alexis stepping out of the car and walking home. Tyler was very angry about the situation and destroyed his bedroom out of anger, and they ended up breaking up which led to Tyler to start taking drugs. Around that time, prom arrives. They don’t end up going together and she decides to go with her boy best friend. Jealousy overcomes Tyler through an Instagram post of them together, and he decides to show up at the prom’s after party to look for Alexis.

He storms out of the house which makes his parents worried, and once he arrives at the party he sees Alexis walking upstairs with her boy best friend. He assumes the worst and once Alexis comes back down he follows after her. She went into the garage for some drinks and that’s when Tyler appeared. They started arguing again about whether or not she should abort the baby and should they get back together. She slaps him across the face because he was yelling at her and that’s when Tyler punched her, killing her. He runs away and Emily finds her body and eventually Tyler gets caught by the police which leads him to get life in prison.

The second half of the movie is about his twin sister Emily and about how after the tragic incident with Alexis she didn’t feel the same. She would get death threats and keep to herself, until one day a boy named Luke asked her on a date. She decided to go and they really liked each other. From that day on they would talk everyday and would go on trips with each other. They became a couple, and they were there for each other through the most rough times, like when Luke’s dad passed away, and when Emily would blame herself for Alexis. They made each other happy.

This film really feels like two different movies. The first half really shows toxic masculinity and the intense relationships between Tyler and his family. The film had a lot of vibrant colors for whatever emotion was portrayed on the screen. The second half of the film was very calming, as it emphasized love and forgiveness, dealing with the hate and overcoming the pain. The film did feel like a wave of emotions; I really like this movie because of that. The soundtrack was amazing as well (Frank Ocean, Tyler the Creator), it had a lot of good powerful songs.

I give this movie a 5/5. I recommend this film to whoever likes to feel the emotions through the screen. You can watch this film on Tubi, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.