The Way, Way Back

Directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

(PG-13)

***

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This charming coming-of-age film “is the ideal low-key antidote to high-octane blockbuster fatigue,” said Claudia Puig in USA Today. Blessed with “sparkling” dialogue and a “top-notch ensemble cast,” this winning drama transcends the pitfalls of genre convention as it tracks the growing pains of an insecure 14-year-old trying to survive a summer-long beach vacation in close company with his mother’s cruel boyfriend (Steve Carell). Little-known Liam James plays the lead role “to perfection,” yet he’s upstaged by an “astonishing” Sam Rockwell, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. Rockwell plays a zany, fast-talking water-park manager who takes the boy under his wing and emerges as an unforgettable mentor. “You can tell it’s a movie directed by writers,” though, because scenes play too long and the story is “paced at an amble,” said Ty Burr in The Boston Globe. Still, the Oscar-winning co-writers of 2011’s The Descendants do know their beach-community turf, and they’ve packed in plenty of minor pleasures. Slight as it is, their movie “goes down like a Popsicle on a hot July day.”