Snack Shack
Snack Shack
Starring Conor Sherry, Gabriel LaBelle, Mika Adballa, Nick Robinson
Directed by Adam Carter Rehmeier
AJ (Conor Sherry) and Moose (Gabriel LaBelle) are best friends living in Nebraska City in the summer of 1991, and want to get rich - so they brew their own beer. That fizzles out, and AJ's parents make him get a summer job. Thanks to his military friend Shane (Nick Robinson), AJ and Moose get a job at the local pool's snack shack, where they hustle their way into making a killing. Nothing will come between these young entrepreneurs - until Brooke (Mika Abdalla) moves in next door to AJ, and both boys develop crushes on her. Will their mutual passion be their undoing?
"Snack Shack" is a little better than your average coming-of-age film due to the committed, talented performances of the two young leads. Conor Sherry hasn't really done much acting to this point, which is a surprise considering how well he did in it. He played AJ as the (normally) straight-laced kid who's parents think his best friend is his bad influence, but they're equally to blame for their hijinks during the summer, be it brewing their own beer or pretending to be adults to purchase the snack shack or smoking cigarettes at a breakneck pace, AJ is no saint. Yet Sherry's angelic face masks that facade so much you can't help but feel for him, especially when hormones get in the way of his friendship with his bestie, whom said they'd never do anything without the other - they come as a packaged deal.
That other half is Gabriel LaBelle's Moose, and unlike Sherry LaBelle has had some intense acting gigs before this - most notably one. He played the young fictionalized Steven Spielberg in the Spielberg-directed, multiple-Oscar nominated film "The Fabelmans," and here he plays a totally different character. While in "The Fabelmans" he was a visionary goodie two shoes who never let anything get in his way, here he plays a...well, visionary who never let anything get in his way, but there's nothing goodie two-shoes about him. He's crash, vulgar, conceited, and over-the-top in his antics, but LaBelle makes it not just believable, but enjoyable as well, finely walking the line between endearing and annoying.
Just like with every coming-of-age film, this centers on one time of the teens' lives, which most notably takes place in the summer, where they get to run amok and create good-natured havoc throughout the town while infuriating AJ's staunch parents, one of whom is a judge. These boys epitomize the "boys will be boys" trope as they try to find get rich quick schemes while partying every night and getting picked on by the older jocks from their school. Once they purchase the Snack Shack, things hit an elevated high as they show off their talents by offering higher prices for hot dogs with curse words written in ketchup, as they down twelve packs in the back.
Once the x-factor is thrown in, the boys are thrown for a loop - and that x-factor is the attractive new neighbor girl Brooke, played by relative newcomer Mika Abdalla. Much like her trope, she plays it to perfection - be the Jezebel who gets in-between the two friends, but Abdalla is given a little more than that to work with, but not by much. She still does admirably, even though her character is a bit thinly written. It's not the actress's fault, and she pulls off what she's been given. Likewise, Nick Robinson does a great job as the teens' bad mentor/friend Shane, back from the military and the apple of the town's eye even as he steers the boys in wrong directions.
The film is entirely too long - at almost two hours, it could've been better if it cut about thirty minutes - and the pacing and tone goes all over the place. In the first scenes the boys bet on racing dogs, sell their beer, get found out, get into fights, and discovers the snack shack - all before the opening credits start. Then, especially when Brooke enters the picture, the film stalls to a crawl, slowly meandering its tropes like episode vignettes, where it seems one moment is inconsequential to the other. They go through moments that serve as their own stories that never really fit into the cohesive whole, and emotional stakes fall by the wayside. It's like AJ and Moose never learn anything because despite each event being huge, they're never seen that way.
Then the tone of the film takes a nosedive in the final act, throwing a wrench in the teens' plans entirely. Not only are they battling for Brooke's affections, but a wild out-of-the-blue event occurs that further changes their lives. Yet even this happens for a brief moment, and then it's almost back to business as usual. It's all surface level, which is fine if your film is 90 minutes - but at 112, you better deliver something more than just tropes and platitudes that guarantees this won't be a fondly remembered coming-of-age film when your children are going through their coming-of-age periods.
With the help of strong young leads, "Snack Shack" provides enough laughs to keep you somewhat entertained, but a lengthy runtime, off-put pacing and sudden tonal shifts keep it from becoming a memorable coming-of-age comedy that could be enjoyed decades from now.
The Score: B
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