Waves

Competing pressures conspire to topple a black teenager in this powerful domestic drama that caresses and crashes against the screen like the waves of the title. The third film from Trey Edward Shults (after Krisha and It Comes at Night) intensely captures the competitive fervour experienced by thrill-seeking, risk-taking, pumped-up protagonist Tyler, played by an outstanding Kelvin Harrison Jr. It also reveals the way his stresses suffocate and define him, and shows how his uncompromising father (Sterling K Brown) only ratchets up the expectation. With Tyler clearly heading for a fall, the film can be agonising to watch, but Shults paints a provocative, compassionate picture of what it's like to be a young black man in America today. The time spent in the shoes of Tyler's shy sister Emily (Taylor Russell, giving a gorgeously nuanced performance) offers welcome respite from the film's more heady scenes. Shot in an alternately surging and sensitive style by Shults's regular collaborator Drew Daniels, and sensationally scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, this is immersive, affecting film-making from a director who just keeps getting better.