Hollywood tackles toxic masculinity with teen drama 'Waves'
A still from the film 'Waves'
Reeling from the #MeToo movement, Hollywood has put toxic masculinity under the spotlight this year with a batch of Oscars contenders zeroing in on the father-son dynamic.
From Joaquin Phoenix in 'Joker' to Brad Pitt's 'Ad Astra,' A-listers have flocked to roles which highlight the damage caused by sons' quests for their fathers' approval.
But none have confronted the theme more brutally and personally than 'Waves,' the indie coming-of-age teen drama being tipped as an Oscars dark horse.
The film, portraying a black middle-class family in Miami which implodes following a tragedy, has been hailed as "a knockout" by the New York Times and an "intimate epic" by The Hollywood Reporter.
Director Trey Edward Shults modelled the film's strict patriarch on his own stepfather, whose overzealous coaching results in a hideous high-school wrestling injury -- a trauma which is dramatized in the movie, and leads to devastating consequences.
"It is a cautionary tale of the traditional idea of masculinity," Shults, 31, told AFP.
"We don't have to build these tough exteriors -- we can be vulnerable, we can communicate."
Described as a 'Dazed and Confused' for the Instagram generation, the film shows how the expectation that teenage boys be strong, silent and stoic endures in American culture.
"That's all Kel (Harrison). That's all with his dad. They had that very talk," said Shults, who admits that trying to portray an African-American family's experience was intimidating.
"It felt like a lot of responsibility."
