PREGAME THOUGHTS

As I make my through some coming-of-age stories, the Internet recommended The Way, Way Back since I liked The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

I haven’t seen a movie starring both Steve Carell and Toni Collette since Little Miss Sunshine! How’s that for some trivia? It’s almost as if I’ve seen movies before.

THE 700(ish)-WORD SYNOPSIS

Duncan (Liam James) is not a young Shawn from Psych, not this time. He’s a young teenager from upstate New York who gets dragged to Cape Cod to spend the summer in his mother’s (Pam, Toni Collette) boyfriend’s (Trent, Steve Carell) beach house. Throughout the movie, it’s funny to hear Steve Carell exasperatedly say “Pam” a lot in a different context.

Duncan is so awkward that he’s uncomfortable to watch, which means he plays the part flawlessly. He hunches his shoulders and keeps his head down and wears jeans to the beach. Trent is complete asshole to him, and his real dad isn’t much better. It’s like he needs a good father figure! I hope it happens!

Their neighbors are the perpetually tipsy Betty (Allison Janney) and her teenage daughter Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb), and married couple Kip (Rob Corddry) and Joan (Amanda Peet). Duncan fancies Susanna, but he’s really bad at talking to girls and makes a damn fool of himself. Susanna finds it barely endearing.

Not content with just sitting around the beach house, Duncan takes a girl’s bicycle (complete with a basket and a bell) and rides into town. He meets Owen (Sam Rockwell), a water park staff member who is playing Pac-Man at a pizza place and pretending he’s never even seen a video game before. Duncan visits the water park, where Owen shows him around and introduces him to other members of the crew: the exasperated Caitlin (Maya Rudolph), the laid-back Roddy (Nat Faxon), and the rather schlubby Lewis (Jim Rash). Owen takes Duncan under his wing and treats him like a little brother, culminating in Duncan taking a part-time job at the water park.

His second life spending his summer days at the park causes Duncan to slowly build confidence, something he’s been struggling with his whole life. Meanwhile, at the house, he continues getting belittled by Trent and ignored by his mother. Trent also has a daughter living in the house with them, but who cares. Eventually, Susanna notices that Duncan is having a hard time and starts inviting him to hang out a little bit. It’s awkward for a while, but he slowly starts coming out of his shell. One night, on his way home from hanging out with Susanna, he spots Trent and Joan kissing. Pam suspects that Trent is having an affair, but she avoids the notion completely to cope. Trent, of course, claims that there’s nothing going on between him and Joan.

During a night party, Duncan confronts Pam loudly in front of friends neighbors about Pam’s unwillingness to acknowledge the affair and stand up for herself, which causes a physical altercation between him and Trent. Duncan runs away and Susanna follows to help him feel better. He tries to kiss her, she backs away, he feels even worse.

The water park staff is having a going-away party for Lewis, who has quit a handful of times already and always comes back. Duncan stays out all night and refuses to go back home the next morning, leading Owen to get involved and ask what’s going on. Duncan basically says the water park is the only place he has ever felt good. He doesn’t want to leave. Owen gets it, but tells him that he doesn’t want to be stuck at the water park like a smelly, fat loser. Owen had a similar situation with his own upbringing and advises Duncan to do what he can do be himself and go his own way.

After Duncan gets home, he is told that the family is packing up and leaving immediately. Susanna kisses him goodbye. Sullen, he piles himself into the car and mopes while Trent drives away. While stopping for gas across from the water park, Duncan bolts out of the car and says one last goodbye to his friends. Pam, Trent, and who-cares Trent’s daughter follow and witness Duncan’s daytime summer existence. After one final hurrah on the Devil’s Peak waterslide, he introduces Owen to his family. Owen helps Duncan stand up for himself against Trent.

At the end, Duncan hugs Owen, says goodbye, and leaves with the family. Pam climbs to the backseat, away from Trent, to join her son in the way, way back of the car.

TOM’S DISCUSSION CORNER

TOPIC 1 — Sam Rockwell

Sam Rockwell stole the show. From the moment you see him playing Pac-Man to the moment he says goodbye, every single scene he’s in is wonderful. Since Trent is a complete, unapologetic dickhead, and Duncan’s father (presumably) wants nothing to do with him, to see this guy killing it as a father figure without an ounce of schmaltz was what made the film for me. I was wary at first, certainly, because I’m always wary when an older man befriends a young kid. What the fuck were you doing with Marty, Doc Brown? But Owen didn’t have a creepy bone in his body.

Owen’s progression from the audience’s point of view was believable and well-paced. Being a guy in his ’40s working at the waterpark, you’d expect a man-child with emotional developmental issues. And that’s exactly what you get for a while! But when faced with serious situations, such as Caitlin finally bubbling over about Owen’s desire to treat everything as a joke, he reigns it in with honest heart. When Duncan admits that the waterpark was the only place he felt happy, Owen doesn’t spare the bluntness. Basically, it’s a “don’t end up like me” speech, but you can tell that Owen is exactly the kind of person one should end up like. IT’S TOUCHING. Leave me alone.

TOPIC 2 — Spending the Summer at a Beach House

Other than cottages for weeklong stays, I’ve never stayed at someone’s beach house for an extended period of time. However, I do have some stories about when I was a teenager and I was forced to stay a week at a trailer park during two separate summers.

My grandmother/grandfather and my aunt’s family both owned trailers in some sort of “vacation” trailer park in a bumfuck hick Michigan town where no one is smarter than a cantaloupe. I had my cousins around in both years but the female cousin my age was just looking to get boned, the male cousin my age was destroying property in the pavilions, and the younger male cousin was too young to really hang out with but he was the best of the three.

To maintain partial anonymity, let’s call the hooligan Bryan. Bryan had some burnouts and Hot Topic sluts as friends, and he’d spend his days bouncing from trailer to trailer finding girls to hit on or trying to get pot from the older kids and younger adults. One guy, probably in his forties, made me and Bryan touch our fists together so that he could tap his cigarette ash between them and “whoever moves their hand first loses”. I’m proud to say that I won!

There was also this kid who wore the same Misfits shirt every single day, and Bryan launched bottle rocks at him and lacerated his arm. I don’t know what happened to him, but I’m sure there was some gross clinic trailer somewhere near the park entrance.

I have other stories, but the bottom line is that it was all very miserable. I had the most fun hanging out in the dilapidated arcade and watching South Park marathons on my grandparents’ TV. I didn’t have a fucking waterpark to sneak away to and develop friendships with people who actually had jobs. Duncan had it made, man.

IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

In an interview, writer/director Jim Rash said the script’s main inspiration was the opening scene, inspired by a similar conversation he had with his own stepfather when he was 14.
Steve Carell asks Duncan in the beginning of the movie how he would rate himself from 1 – 10. Duncan settled on 6. Carell told him he thinks he’s a 3. I’d also rate Jim Rash a 3! That’s mean! I don’t really mean that! Dean Pelton is my favorite character on Community!

In order to save money, the filmmakers decided to not get trailers for the actors, and instead decided to rent a house for the duration of filming (approx. 6 weeks), where the actors could go between takes. The house turned into a popular hangout spot for the cast and crew, and they would often go to the house even during weekends or days off.
Can you imagine how much fuckin’ went on in that house?

Sam Rockwell would often improvise and joke around on the loudspeaker during scenes. One time, forgetting that there were children around, he made an inappropriate joke about herpes, which upset the owner of the park. Rockwell had to go and apologize so that they could continue filming.
The owner of the park almost turned the car around on the filming of The Way, Way Back. What if Sam Rockwell was like “fuck no, I won’t apologize”. The movie would have died of herpes.

IS IT WORTH A WATCH?

Yeah, this movie was great. It’s a feelgood coming-of-age film that doesn’t get too sappy and stupid (the breakdance scene overstepped it a little bit), and Sam Rockwell’s performance alone is worth the watch. Just don’t look too hard at Nat Faxon’s shitty teeth and everything will be juuuuuust fine.