The Way Way Back

The title of this movie is a key to its storytelling.  The story by its unfolding makes it hard to pick when the story is set.  There's 80s music, 70s cars, 90s beach settings and cell phones.  Liam James plays Duncan the 14 year old son of _Pam (Toni Collette).  He's a complete loser from our initial meeting and is treated as such by everyone around him, including himself.  To escape this familial hell that is forced on him via beach vacation, he takes off and finds... Water Wizz, a blue-collar water park.

There he finds a new family, Sam Rockwell as Owen, the father figure, Maya Rudolph as the mom and everyone else as the extended family.  Being hired to work at Water Wizz gives him a nice escape all day from the drama at home.

Steve Carrel plays the evil stepfather (so to speak) as the potential new dad.  Of course he proves himself to be completely unworthy in all respects.   Has there every been a movie when the stepfather IS worthy?  Note that usually the real father in these movies is conveniently dead or otherwise missing.

A nice little Indie coming of age movie.   I thought it was more of merger of memories  into a dream.  That's why it seemed like the different places in time all came together. 

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