Snack Shack Review: A Predictable Summer Fun Film!
As someone who enjoys the summer atmosphere of warm nights, pool days, and ice cream in the middle of the afternoon, rather than the reality of walking into the blazing 90 degree sun, watching summer films is the equivalent of the average person’s enjoyment of the dog days season. As someone who is older now, revisiting summer romances, school being out, and the endless possibilities of having out-all-night adventures feels pleasantly nostalgic.
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Snack Shack starring Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle follows A.J and Moose, two best friends about to enter high school looking for a way to gain extra cash during the summer after their money-making schemes fall flat. They decide to rent out the local pool’s snack shack during the summer and along the way they experience first loves, hard truths, and laughs along the way. Overall, Snack Shack has its enjoyable moments but the film’s struggling pacing and overused conventions make it a run of the mill watch.
Where a lot of people are able to admire a film’s on screen talent and chemistry between the characters as a way of saving the film from mishaps, Sherry and LaBelle are not given enough material to overpower the overdone script. Both boys have fantastic chemistry together and the beginning of the film gives off a vulgar Superbad type of dialogue that leads the way for a more raunchy R rated comedy, however director and screenwriter Adam Rehmeier opts for a much more toned down comedy that never reaches its full potential.
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— Paramount Movies (@ParamountMovies) March 15, 2024
Its R rating gives it more of an ability to branch out thematically, giving its two main characters the ability to make the audience cackle with laughter, however it chooses to expand on more PG-13 coming-of-age themes that feel much more tame and conventional as a result. Snack Shack plays it very safe and therefore the elements that make it strongest are greatly overpowered by its lack of risks.
As mentioned, Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle are a fun duo to watch but the other side characters struggle to go beyond surface level exploration. Brooke (Mika Abdalla), the film’s love interest for both boys, is poorly written given the “hot lifeguard” characteristic while at the same time inadvertently becoming the film’s villain, getting in between two friends without much care.
It seems this was not intended by the filmmakers but her lack of development causes the audience to feel this way because of the love we have for the two boys. Stating that she wants to just “have fun and enjoy the summer” while she is there, given her family is part of the military and moves around constantly, isn’t enough for the audience to back up her motivations, therefore leaving her character flat.
Although the film does create a nostalgic 90s summer atmosphere that one wants to jump right into, there are specific plot devices that are used as a means to an end, where a better screenwriter would have found less “cheap” ways to evolve its plot.
The movie jumps into “Screenwriting 101” territory in moments that make the audience feel that the unnecessary nature of some of Reheimer’s screenwriting choices was just a means to create division and reconciliation between its characters. It gave off the feeling that Rehmeier didn’t know how to end his film, therefore opting for screenwriting choices that felt insufficient thematically and story wise. Snack Shack will likely be a film to put on during those summer months where one wishes to cool off and relax but other than that it isn’t as memorable as it wishes it was.
‘Snack Shack’ Rating – 2.5/5
Follow Steph (the Author) on IG – @cinemasteph_7
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