The Way, Way Back (2013)

A 14 year old boy (Liam James) and his mother (Toni Collette) are spending the summer at the beach house of his mother's new boyfriend (Steve Carell) along with his teenage daughter (Zoe Levin). Having a hard time dealing with his mother's boyfriend, he spends his days at a water park with the laid back manager (Sam Rockwell) and finds himself opening up under the wing of his new mentor. This is the directorial film debut of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash who won Oscars for their screenplay for THE DESCENDANTS along with Alexander Payne. THE DESCENDANTS was one of my most disliked films of 2011 mainly because of its screenplay, so imagine my surprise at this well written often incisive coming of age tale. Let's be honest, there's only so much you can do with yet another coming of age story so it's not so much the journey but telling of it and the telling of it here is marvelous. For the most parts, the film resists going for the obvious and while it often revels in its quirkiness, it's never at the expense of its characters. The film belongs to Rockwell but he gets a lot competition from Allison Janney as an alcoholic, horny single mother of two. The rest of cast includes Maya Rudolph, Amanda Peet, AnnaSophia Robb, Rob Corddry and River Alexander. Go see it!