OVERVIEW
A shy teenager who skateboards and draws meets a surfer in his Los Angeles high school, and the two fall into a slow, all-encompassing first love. In Waves follows AJ (Will Sharpe in the English version, Rio Vega in French) and Kristen (Stephanie Hsu in English, Lyna Khoudri in French) from that first meeting through the years that follow, as Kristen’s sudden illness reshapes everything they thought they were building. Directed and graphically designed by Phuong Mai Nguyen in her feature debut, the film is adapted from AJ Dungo’s 2019 autobiographical graphic novel of the same name.
BACKGROUND
Vietnamese-born Phuong Mai Nguyen approached the project unaware of its biographical stakes, having been told only that it was a love story set in the world of surfing. She had never surfed nor lived in California, but she was moved by Dungo’s approach to grief and felt a strong responsibility towards him and Kristen’s family, meeting them early and throughout the production. Working as both director and graphic designer, she pulled away from the comic’s monochromatic look, reaching instead for the pop atmosphere and lighting of the West Coast. Produced by Silex Films in Paris with animation shared across three studios and a hybrid 2D/3D pipeline built specifically for the water, the film opens the 65th Cannes Critics’ Week as the first animated feature ever given that slot.
THE REVIEW
The visual confidence of In Waves shows from its opening minutes, where a short black-and-white prologue traces the history of surfing, a motif the film returns to throughout, before cutting to ocean waves where Kristen surfs freely. The water is the highlight; its hybrid style infuses 3D effects into the otherwise 2D film, popping every time it is on screen and effortlessly capturing what the waves mean to the characters, especially Kristen.
The color work is the second loud achievement. In pulling away from Dungo’s restrained monochrome, Nguyen has built her own watercolor palette in pink-and-blue California light that shifts with what characters are going through, warming in the early scenes and cooling as the film goes on. There are stretches where the visual approach echoes the distinct Spider-Verse style that is everywhere, especially in a few skateboard-tracking sequences where the camera locks onto AJ and Los Angeles streaks past in a painted blur. Nguyen dials the energy by half, and combined with the vibrant colors, it becomes a visual delight.
What is not as effective is the storytelling beneath all the gorgeous frames. The teenage romance is cute and tender, yet it goes through all the familiar bits one expects. They meet, AJ is awkward, Kristen seems out of her league, but eventually melts. She teaches him to surf, even though he is afraid of the water. Meanwhile, friends and family from both sides act as the supporting characters in the precise definition of the word: they are there in the movie only to support the two main characters, living in the film only to provide information to the audience when the narrative needs them to.
There is little conflict outside the big, obvious one, and once it arrives, Nguyen takes the safe route, rarely getting inside her characters, never pushing past the clever use of color. There are a few dream sequences, as well as the returning black-and-white history of surf segments, yet in them, too, aesthetics feel like the priority, failing to go deeper into the characters’ inner lives while keeping the metaphors simplistic. The film thankfully avoids full melodrama, but neither does it leave a lasting impact.
FINAL THOUGHTS
In the film’s pre-release interviews, Nguyen has spoken about how Dungo’s graphic novel helped her name an experience of grief she had not been able to articulate. Watching In Waves, what comes through with the most clarity is something else: a love affair with the West Coast. California’s ocean waters and lights are rendered with an attention that feels missing in the central relationship, resulting in a pleasant but unremarkable debut. These waves are far too gentle to surf.