![]() ![]() The raw and redemptive tale of a broken soul who starts piecing himself back together when he’s hired to coach his old high school basketball team, “The Way Back” only sounds like a movie that you’ve already seen 100 times because - in broad strokes - it is. < span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block width: 0px overflow: hidden line-height: 0 ” class=”mce_SELRES_start”>  < /span> In fact, this sober little studio movie is so uncommonly effective because of its steady insistence that life can’t be lived in reverse that, contrary to its title, there’s no going back. It denies Affleck the crutch of his natural charisma, or the chance to hide behind a story that’s bigger than himself. ![]() In fact, it has more to do with how Gavin O’Connor’s modest and moving sports drama refuses to let its leading man reclaim something of his old screen persona. That’s not just because the meta-text of it all is so hard to ignore, and that Affleck shot this movie shortly after finishing a stint in rehab (the actor’s own misadventures with alcohol are chronicled by the tabloids, and his mea culpas by the Times). The 25 Most Momentous TV Deaths of This CenturyĪnd yet, his compellingly underplayed performance in “The Way Back” feels like it might be the most personal thing he’s ever done. Martin Scorsese's Favorite Movies: 58 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman' Review: Murakami Anthology Nails the Essence of an Unfilmable Author ![]() 'Mafia Mamma' Review: Toni Collette Inherits a Crime Syndicate in Fluffy Feminist Comedy Sometimes the best kind of coming of age comedies are the ones where everything eventually works out, even if it's not realistic.Swollen and greasy (Affleck has never looked bigger, or seemed quite as small), Jack is a far cry from the chiseled Bruce Wayne, the brave Tony Mendez, or even the self-parodic cheater Affleck embodied in “Gone Girl.” Wasn’t this guy supposed to be Boston’s George Clooney, or at least its apology for Mark Wahlberg? What about the next Clint Eastwood? Cursed to be a movie star in an age that doesn’t need them, Affleck has grown almost unrecognizable from the middle-class matinee idol that Hollywood first swooned over in the late ’90s. Yet still, there is a truth and passion to the story that really comes from knowing a teenage experience and knowing that life has many problems but many hidden joys. Of course the story is pretty run of the mill: boy goes on vacation, boy meets girl, and boy becomes cool via older, callow friends, and eventually finds the courage to stand up to his parent. Its characters are familiar, as if from life, and yet new to us, in the way they act onscreen. There's such a truthful and bittersweet humor to this film, and style comes from that mirth and originality. Previously heralded for their screenwriting on "The Descendants," they wrote, directed, and acted in this great coming of age story about a boy stuck between his nervous mother and her hostile boyfriend, while on vacation. The comedy team of Jim Rash and Nat Faxon must keep making movies together, because they are amazing. Rating: PG-13 (Language|Brief Drug Material|Some Sexual Content|Thematic Elements) As Duncan tends to the slides and pools of the aging park, he finds a father figure in wisecracking park manager Owen (Sam Rockwell) at a time when he desperately needs one. Trent can't resist badgering Duncan, so the youth steals away to a water park and gets a job that will help him stay off Trent's radar. Duncan (Liam James) is an awkward teen who must spend the summer at a beach house with his mother (Toni Collette), her boyfriend, Trent (Steve Carell), and Trent's obnoxious daughter. ![]()
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