''The Way, Way Back'' is a 2013 American
coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by
Nat Faxon and
Jim Rash in their directorial debuts. It stars
Liam James as Duncan, an introverted 14-year-old who goes on summer vacation to
Wareham, Massachusetts, with his mother and her overbearing boyfriend. It also stars
Steve Carell,
Toni Collette,
Allison Janney,
AnnaSophia Robb,
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for playing troubled police officer Jason Dixon in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' (2017). He was nominated i ...
, and
Maya Rudolph, with
Rob Corddry,
Amanda Peet, Faxon, and Rash in supporting roles.
Faxon and Rash conceived the film in the early 2000s, but it spent several years in
development hell before funding could be secured. Filming lasted several months during summer 2012. It premiered at the
2013 Sundance Film Festival,
where
Fox Searchlight Pictures (which also distributed ''
The Descendants'', co-written by Faxon and Rash, and where the film was originally in production) acquired distribution rights to it. The film was theatrically released in the United States on July 5, 2013, where it received positive reviews and was a box office success, grossing $26.9 million against its $5 million budget.
Plot
Introverted 14-year-old Duncan from
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...
, reluctantly goes on summer vacation to a beach house in
Wareham, Massachusetts, with his mother Pam, her wealthy boyfriend Trent, and Trent's spoiled daughter Steph. Trent and Steph are frequently condescending towards Duncan.
On the way to the beach house, Trent asks Duncan to rate himself on a scale of one to ten. Duncan says six, but Trent states that he's a three. At the house they are greeted by their neighbors: gregarious, heavy-drinking Betty, her children Susanna and Peter, and married couple Kip and Joan. Later that evening, Duncan and Susanna have an awkward conversation from their adjacent porches.
Duncan discovers a small
girl's bicycle in the garage, which he uses to explore the town. At a pizzeria he meets Owen, a worker at the local
water park,
Water Wizz. Owen takes Duncan under his wing and introduces him to the park's employees: Caitlin, Lewis, and Roddy. Several youths at the water park speak reverently of a legendary pass in the tube slide, wondering how it could have been done. Owen hires Duncan for odd jobs at the park.
Duncan is continually neglected by Pam, who indulges in drinking, staying out late, and smoking
marijuana
Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
with other adult vacationers. At a
Fourth of July cookout, Susanna invites him to go hunting for
ghost crabs with her and Peter, where they both open up about their absent fathers. Later that night, Duncan witnesses Trent and Joan kissing, but does not tell anyone.
Pam suspects Trent is having an affair, but he dissuades her of this notion. Later, Duncan confronts Pam in front of the others and tells her to leave Trent. When Trent interjects, Duncan insults and shoves him; Trent indignantly tells Duncan his father does not want him. Duncan flees, and Susanna follows him to offer comfort. When he tries to kiss her, she rejects him, upsetting him even more. Accompanied by Peter, Duncan sneaks away to Water Wizz, where Owen is throwing a going-away party for Lewis.
Duncan spends the night with his friends at Water Wizz, refusing to leave in the morning. He opens up to Owen about his home situation, and how Water Wizz is the only place where he feels accepted. A sympathetic Owen recalls his own upbringing where he was forced to abide by strict rules and advises Duncan to disregard Trent's criticisms and be himself.
When Duncan returns to the beach house, Pam tells him they are all leaving. Betty and her kids arrive to say their goodbyes, and Susanna kisses Duncan. They leave in a station wagon, with Duncan in the rear area ("The Way Way Back"). When Trent stops for gas on their way out of town, Duncan jumps out of the station wagon and runs to Water Wizz, followed by his mother, Trent, and Steph. Duncan tells Owen and the other employees that he has to leave, and goes with Owen to the Devil's Peak slide. Duncan becomes the first person to ever pass someone in the water slide while the rest of the park staff and attendees watch.
After introducing Owen to his mother, Duncan bids everyone at the park goodbye. Owen speaks fondly of Duncan to Pam, and introduces himself to Trent as "a good friend of the 'three'". Trent attempts to bypass Owen in order to bring Duncan back to the car, but Owen blocks him and Trent retreats. Duncan hugs Owen and thanks him for his kindness. Trent, Steph, Pam, and Duncan regroup in the station wagon, where Pam finally stands up for herself as they head out of town. Pam climbs to the back area of the station wagon (th
"way back" where Duncan is sitting, despite Trent's protests, and they share a smile.
Cast
Reception
Box office
The film had its premiere screening at the 2013
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acted ...
.
It was one of the most financially successful films to come out of the festival that year, outperforming well-known entries and Oscar-nominated films from the previous year.
It was released on July 5, 2013 in 19 theaters and surpassed box office expectations, averaging an impressive $30,263 per screen and grossing $525,000 for the weekend.
On July 15, 2013, it was added to an additional 60 theaters and grossed $1.1 million. It ended up earning $21.5 million in North America and $5 million elsewhere, for a total of $26.5 million.
Critical response
''The Way, Way Back'' received positive reviews. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
it has a rating of 83% based on 185 reviews, with an average score of 7.30/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Despite its familiar themes, ''The Way Way Back'' makes use of its talented cast, finely tuned script, and an abundance of charm to deliver a funny and satisfying coming-of-age story".
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 41 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Inkoo Kang of ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'' called the film "a crowd-pleasing summer treat, predictable in its sweetness but satisfying all the same".
BBC Radio 5 Live film critic
Mark Kermode praised the performances of
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for playing troubled police officer Jason Dixon in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' (2017). He was nominated i ...
,
Toni Collette,
Allison Janney and
Maya Rudolph and similarly reasoned that whilst "it's not world-changing, or earth-shattering" the film is "really sweet and funny". David Gritten of ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' also praised the scene-stealing performances of Janney and Rockwell, concluding that despite a flood of similar coming-of-age films released in 2013 the film "feels warm, funny—and even fresh". Catherine Shoard of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' gave the film a positive review, concluding that "for all the longueurs, there are still enough moments of near brilliance to sustain you through the trip". Betsy Sharkey of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' commended the film's quirky dialogue and cast performances, calling the film "witty, heartwarming, hopeful, sentimental, searing and relatable".
Sam Rockwell's performance was met with critical praise, with many critics agreeing that his performance was deserving of an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
nomination. MaryAnn Johanson of ''Flick Filosopher'' said that Rockwell "makes the biggest splash with a sizzling supporting performance. Not only is he naturally funny, but he has the great ability to make every sharp line of dialogue sound freshly improvised."
A.A. Dowd of ''
The A.V. Club'' gave the film a C+, describing it as "generically constructed" and "never as refreshing as it's constantly straining to be".
Home media
''The Way, Way Back'' was released on
DVD and
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
on October 22, 2013, by
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
extras included a deleted scenes, behind the scenes featurettes: town of the water park, and the filmmakers: jim and nat, and ensemble featurettes. ''The Way, Way Back'' became available to stream on
Disney+
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
on March 21, 2024.
Accolades
Soundtrack
Heather Phares of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
gave the film's soundtrack 7 out of 10 stars, saying:
# "For the Time Being" –
Edie Brickell/The Gaddabouts
# "
Kyrie" –
Mr. Mister
# "Out the Door" –
Ben Kweller
# "Come and See" –
Young Galaxy
# "Running Wild" –
Army Navy
# "Young Blood" –
UFO
# "Shine" –
Wild Belle
# "
New Sensation" –
INXS
# "
Sneaking Sally Through the Alley" –
Robert Palmer
# "Young at Heart" –
The Rondo Brothers/
Tim Myers
# "Recess" –
Eli "Paperboy" Reed
# "Power Hungry Animals" –
The Apache Relay
# "Alone" –
Trampled by Turtles
# "Go Where the Love Is" – Edie Brickell/The Gaddabouts
# "The Way Way Back" –
Rob Simonsen
Other songs
* "
Can't Fight This Feeling" –
REO Speedwagon
References
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Way Way Back, The
2013 films
2013 comedy-drama films
2013 directorial debut films
2013 independent films
2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films
2010s teen comedy-drama films
American coming-of-age comedy-drama films
American independent films
American teen comedy-drama films
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about vacationing
Films directed by Nat Faxon
Films scored by Rob Simonsen
Films set in Albany, New York
Films set in Massachusetts
Films set in water parks
Films set on beaches
Films shot in Massachusetts
Odd Lot Entertainment films
Films about mother–son relationships
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
TSG Entertainment films
English-language comedy-drama films
English-language independent films