Period piece coming of age films are timeless and will never be in short supply, but the time periods the films tend to be set in do change. As directors are increasingly from the Millennial generation, we’ve seen more and more set in the 1990’s (from Mid90’s to Ladybird to this year’s excellent Didi), pulling from the directors’ personal experiences growing up. Snack Shack is the latest in this line of timeless throwbacks with a twist.
There’s nothing quite like summertime for a school-aged children growing up. The 90s was the last era of unstructured play, where instead of playing games online or going from activity to activity being supervised by helicopter parents, kids were told to go outside to play and come back before dinner or when it got dark. It was the joy and freedom of recess stretched out for two blissful, seemingly never-ending months, and if you had close friends or a best friend to share it with, there was nothing better.
A.J. Carter (Conor Sherry) and Moose Miller (Gabriel LaBelle) are two such best friends with big dreams in small-town Nebraska and their entrepreneurial energy from the opening scene sets the tone for the entire movie. LaBelle, in particular, is irrepressible and an actor to watch for. The irreverent humor, joyful friendship, and teenage growing pains are all on display, entertaining and larger-than-life but not unbelievably so. We get to revel in what makes young friendships grow and also see the types of things that can drive wedges between them – personality differences, and of course, girls (ably provided by a really good Mika Abdalla).
It’s also specific enough to transcend a lot of the indie film tropes (creating and using the terms “fuck dog” and “shitpig” will do that, while being authentic to the vernacular of a 1990s 13 year-old, as I can testify from experience. But more than just a memory/nostalgia dump, this is a great hangout movie – full of Linklater-ish vibes with a modern twist. Just like young summer, you don’t really want this movie to end. When it does, the last act takes a somewhat unexpected turn that feels like it’s out of a different film, but overall Snack Shack is sweet and sincere and an incredible summer vibes movie.
Streaming now on Amazon Prime.
