The Wave movie is a story about a bunch of people on drugs. Lots of people take them in this film. It’s a drug movie, kind of like “Synchronic” or “Pineapple Express.” The cast includes Justin Long, Tommy Flanagan, and Donald Faison, and those names are what appealed to me. I like Justin Long (Jeepers Creepers.) I’m also a mild fan of Donald Faison from his days in “Scrubs” the TV series. The distributors are Epic Picture Group with the movies’ production by Echo Wolf Productions. After a festival run in 2019, The Wave movie was released to VOD on January 17th, 2020.
There is lots of drug-taking and alcohol consumption and The Wave movie immediately presents itself, describing the wave as when the drugs kick in. Yes, it’s that type of film. As a side note, whether or not this is a film to recommend watching under the influence, I’m not sure. And if the idea of floating on a movie wave… vicariously while watching a film sounds good to you, there’s a fair chance you will like this film. There is certainly a pretty good soundtrack to go with the pictures on the screen.
The Wave Movie
Directed by Gille Klabin The Wave movie is his directorial feature-length film debut. Klabin did make a documentary in 2011 and plenty of short films too. The film’s writer Carl W. Lucas also wrote Illegal back in 2010.
For a film about being on a bad trip, The Wave movie is fairly easy to follow. There’s a predictability to the events that are often not present when time is being messed with. The story manages some great laugh-out-loud moments as well. Characters are enjoyable, especially Longs’ portrayal of Frank, and many other supporting cast are easily relatable. Cinematography is an event in itself. The narrative switches from reality to hallucination to dreamscape from time to time. Lots of hints and clues would be easier to see with a second viewing and I’d definitely love to do that.
Frank leads the tale which begins with his backstory. A big promotion is coming his way, but he’s seemingly sold his soul to get it. His life is an outer shell of perceived perfection and the drugs serve to crack the facade as wide open as it will go. I’d like to relate it to other cathartic tripper movies but there is plenty of unique content here interspersed with familiar tones.
Everything Frank does is underpinned by his decision to throw a family under the bus in his job as an insurance lawyer. It’s this very same decision combined with other life choices that allow his journey to transpire and the whole thing snowballs out of control until Frank decides if he wants to stay on the path he is on.
Wave Movie 2019, Stars Justin Long
What I loved about “The Wave” movie was the choice of events it uses to get Frank from A to B. Most of the time the navigation centers around Frank trying to locate his lost wallet and the lost girl he met at a bar, Theresa. At times it will seem confusing as the pieces fall into place. For me, there were one too many floaty dreamscapes Theresa (Sheila Vand). The film creates an oasis of sorts with a handful of scenes overlaying that prophetic ambiguous dialogue films like this seem to go for. It made for some pretty scenery but mostly unrequired.
Overall, I liked The Wave. I enjoyed its ethos of changing your life course by forcing you to look at what your life is really like.
The Wave movie is rated
3.5 universes trying to tell you something out of 5
Where to Watch The Wave Film
You can watch The Wave film on the Epic Pictures (Distributed by) website. The film is also streaming for free on sites like TubiTV and Prime Video in the USA, but for more places to watch The Wave 2019 see the link for Justwatch.com below.
The Wave 2019 movie Where To Watch:
Make your own waves with this Wave machine from Amazon
Put this next to your bed and listen to the sound of waves while you sleep.
