What were you up to during the summer before you stepped into high school? Personally for me, it was no different than the rest of my summers as I indulged myself in baseball practice, tennis camp, video games and Wiffle ball. Pretty much anything with my friends. But one thing that was absolutely not on my mind? Getting a job. There was still much of the summer that I was free, unburdened, and (mostly) without duties. In general, that was how it was for most friends of mine.
But whatever that summer consisted of, for every average fourteen year old I suppose it had to be critical, it was about to be different in so many aspects for them. A change of school expected in the forthcoming summer, a first in many instances of not being able to reach out to friends that you have spent years studying with as children for many of us in my age group did mostly throughout this era where cell phones were uncommon and social media consisted of hundreds of individual websites like Myspace making it difficult to keep in touch with people who didn’t go to your school or live within a reasonable distance of your house. To various extents, it was certainly one of the important developmental periods for all.
Snack Shack, written and directed by Adam Rehmeier, delivered all these emotions almost flawlessly. A.J. (Conor Sherry) and Moose (Gabrielle LaBelle) do have relationships at that age contrary to what I may have, but in the grand scheme of things, the feeling was quite familiar.
The film spans 1991 and Nebraska City where the best friends are now in search of ways they can earn money for their summer vacation. That is their business: to hustle. When summertime comes, they look as though they are prepared for everything that is needed. Betting at dog tracks seems like a great outlet as they also have a market for selling their self made beer. However, when their parents learn of this and put a ban on such outrageousness, they get in trouble. However, an amazing prospect comes their way as they manage to win a tender to operate the snack bar at the community pool and the local dog tracks. It looks like a sure success, and their plans are in motion once more.
However, A.J.’s neighbor gets a surprise guest when his cousin, Brooke, played by Mika Abdalla, visits, and another spanner is thrown into the works. He has an instant crush on him, but lacks the impetus to take action. He never brings this up to Moose, who makes the first move and they begin seeing each other. Now add to that, the fact that things are already tense, with broke working as a pool lifeguard.
Snack Shack’s best quality, and maybe the most intelligent thing it does, is ensure the stakes are always low. That brief synopsis of the plot outline you had before? Yeah, that’s pretty much it. And it is how it should be. Moose and A.J. are two teenage boys in the 90s, located in Nebraska, chilling, and looking to do nothing on their summer break. All in all, it is not all that serious. But that is the thing which makes many magic regarding an effective coming of age story.
The stakes might come to seem irrelevant a year later and definitely three months later. But in the moment, that’s all that matters. It’s their lives at that point. There is nothing more important to them than the present moment. It amuses me so much that it is easy but when done well, it is good. Movies with a slice of life narrative like this work best when they are not exaggerated. One can totally buy that everything that happens with each character is something that any average teenager or any other inhabitant of Nebraska City at the summer of 1991 could experience. There is a sincerity in that which is irreplaceable.
What was rather fascinating too were the scrolls addressing the bigger themes and the ways in which Rehmeier built them up. There isn’t a point when a character says: ‘Next year everything will be different due to some generic reason, so this summer has to be worth it’ there is always a shot, and this year will be special because of the reasons that lie within the shot. He makes people act and listen to what they have to say in the right way. This is a certain kind of composure which not many directors or writers do possess. But it makes everything so much better.
And it is a plus when the cast exceeds the requirements. LaBelle steals the show in his performance that came after The Fabelmans in 2022. He is the loudmouth and the tough guy among the actors’ bunch. LaBelle has a quick temperament and wears it all through a character in which he had to give his best. It is not the same The Fabelmans that he acted in, but still a wide range of talent was displayed. Sherry is on point as his level-headed best friend with a sane approach to the world that is not only about money, girls and ‘things’, maybe a little more but not much. Those two complement each other, and you believe in their relationship from the first moment they are on the screen together.
Abdalla handles her role as Brooke just fine, but the girl is rather without depth. The head of her family serves in the army, hence she has to change place a lot. In one episode she talks for a few seconds about the difficulties, but regrettably, there is not so much time with this. But still, it was not the case with LaBelle and Sherry that made her so working with them just great.
While Snack Shack is a fun little movie, there are some aspects of it that I believe could be improved. First of all, there are the bullies. This is the only time that it felt like Rehmeier was checking off an item on a list of requirements for an independent coming of age film. It appears as though they were added just for the sake of being added because the movie needed to have them. They really are not the primary villains of the brown bears montage and could have been cut out without any effect at all. People do not spend a lot of time with these characters on the screen normally, so it could be worse, but their scenes do feel rather unnatural as if they do not belong there. .
Additionally, the third act has a story choice that I could not fathom why it was in the movie since it added little to the film. At least there were some hints leading up to it so it wasn’t completely out of left field, for example. The kind of impact this part was going for could have been filled in with the resolutions of other subplots. This one ended up being more disruptive rather than delivering the intended impact which has a dulling effect on the result.
Lastly, the tone is a bit off sometimes. Snack Shack is quite a hilarious movie though most of the funny comments are put in the first half of the movie and the second half gets serious. I think it might have been better if the style was more consistent, either everything was raunchy and over the top, or both halves were funny and serious. Surely at times it feels like two different movies.
Snack Shack has a familiar premise but somehow manages to change things up. It’s the small details that are key. For instance, A.J. and Moose entering high school at the age of fourteen instead of eighteen on their way out. There is no major big event concerning the two that they are anxious about. Look at Superbad. Seth and Evan are going to different colleges and they are both nervous about it. But here all it is, is two best pals who are just going through the same growing up stages, just in different settings.
I pointed out some negatives, of course, a few drawbacks to bring it down some. But there’s so much good here too, and in a setup that I’m a total sucker for. Given the money and creativity to do so, this seems like the blueprint for almost exactly the type of movie I would wish to make.
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