‘In Waves’ Review: Elegantly Animated Adaptation of AJ Dungo’s Bestseller Is an Unapologetically Conventional Tearjerker

'In Waves' Review: Animated Surfing + Teen Tragedy Makes for a Stylish Tearjerker

Vietnamese director and graphic artist Phuong Mai Nguyen’s first film, “In Waves,” kicked off the independent International Critics’ Week section of the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday morning, but it also jump-started what it likely to be a running theme at this year’s festival: films that put a spin on biographies and autobiographies. Examples are on the way from directors as diverse as Pedro Almodovar, James Gray and Bruno Santamaria Razo, …

‘In Waves’ Review: Gorgeous Animation Cannot Obscure This Too-Familiar, Too-Tragic Story

Based on the graphic memoir of the same name by illustrator AJ Dungo, the Cannes Critics’ Week selection “In Waves,” from director Phuong Mai Nguyen and screenwriters Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux features beautiful, emotional animation, but is bogged down by its clichéd story of a man coming of age by falling in love with a dying (surfer) girl.  Ostensibly set in Los Angeles (although the local geography is wonky as hell), the film is largely t…

‘In Waves’ Review: An Eloquent Rendering of First Love, Heart-Crushing Loss and the Joy of Surfing

Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu lead the English-language voice cast of Phuong Mai Nguyen’s 'In Waves,' an adaptation of a graphic novel by AJ Dungo.

‘In Waves’ Review: Elegantly Animated Adaptation of AJ Dungo’s Bestseller Is an Unapologetically Conventional Tearjerker

A doomed love story, especially one based on real-life young people braving their own “The Fault in Our Stars”-style tale, is bound to shatter even the coldest of hearts. Earnest, disarming and unapologetically conventional, prolific graphic artist Phuong Mai Nguyen’s elegantly animated feature debut “In Waves” grasps this fact on such a philosophical level that […]