Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Plot: Nebraska City, 1991, two best friends get the chance to run the swimming pool snack shack, that later comes to be the perfect scenario for transgression, fun, personal discovery and romance.
Review: Summer vacations could vary widely depending on where you’re from, but teenaged angst is universal and the 90s-set Snack Shack easily takes audiences back to that time of your life when best friends, big life plans and all-encompassing crushes made up most of our young lives.
Connor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle play best friends A.J. and Moose, two 14-year-olds (or American movie versions of 14-year-olds) who secretly brew beer in Moose’s room with the hopes of selling it to their friends and making a ton of money. Their plans inadvertently lead them to running the snack shack at their local pool for the summer holidays and things are going great. That is until a beauty named Brooke moves into the neighbourhood, causing friction between A.J. and Moose as they vie for her attention.
Strangely the movie has more of an 80’s vibe for something set in the 90s, or maybe it’s just because I kept comparing it to mainstays like Stand by Me and The Breakfast Club. The trailer was also misleading as hell making it seem like Snack Shack was just going to be another R-rated comedy with teenagers at its centre. That’s not to say the movie doesn’t heavily feature young kids cussing, gambling, and drinking (just to name a few of their vices) it’s just that the story itself focuses more on A.J. figuring out how to come out of his shell. His best friend Moose is the more confident and brazen of the two, but where Moose is happy just brewing beer and making money with his friend, A.J. is making secret plans with their older friend Shane who has returned from the military to travel next summer. Shane is also the one who guides A.J on his quest to tell Brooke how he feels about her.
The chemistry between all the characters and the relatability of watching A.J. growing up and outgrowing his best friend is where the strength of the story lies. But beyond A.J. there’s not much going on here. I think Snack Shack could’ve been meatier if we also saw the world through Moose’s eyes as well. Gabriel LaBelle does a great job of making the character memorable but beyond the expected teenaged shenanigans, we don’t get much depth from him, which is a shame because when the tearjerker portion of the story kicks in, we get brief glimpses of how good he could’ve been if he had more material to work with.
I think the trailer did a disservice to this movie. The Snack Shack is a coming-of-age movie more in the vein of The Perks of Being a Wallflower than say, Dazed and Confused. The raunchy comedy it’s made out to be in trailer may leave people somewhat disappointed, but if they stick it out, they’ll find a heartwarming story with characters that grow on you and a deeper story of self-discovery we can all relate to.
Sommer’s Score: 7 out of 10
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Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge-Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes. Double Tap Baby! Read More