The Way Way Back

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Nat Faxon directs. John Bailey behind the camera. Rob Simonsen scores. Tatiana S. Riegel cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $4.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Made its money back 5.0× over at the box office.
• 3Released 13 years ago.
• 4Directed by Nat Faxon, shot by John Bailey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Rob Simonsen. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Tatiana S. Riegel shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Liam James and Steve Carell and Toni Collette carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "We've all been there.".
• 9IMDB entry: tt1727388 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Classified under 14 themes, including "friendship", "beach", "shyness", "massachusetts".

The technical file

Cinematography

John Bailey

Original score

Rob Simonsen

Editing

Tatiana S. Riegel

Production design

Mark Ricker

Runtime

103 min · 1h 43m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$4,600,000

Box office

$23,198,652

Return

504% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG-13

IMDB

The Way Way Back (2013) ↗

Also by

Nat Faxon

• 
  Community

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• 
  Downhill

  2020 · ★ 5.2

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  THE WAY WAY BACK: Official HD Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Wuchak2021-07-04
  ★ 9/10

  A boy coming-of-age near Cape Cod and more A 14 year-old boy (Liam James) struggles to fit-in with the family & friends of his mother’s new beau (Steve Carell) as they partake of a vacation at his beach house in the Cape Cod area. The teen finds a quasi-mentor (Sam Rockwell) at a water park while developing a friendship with the cute neighbor girl (AnnaSophia Robb). Toni Collette plays the mother, Allison Janney a friend and Amanda Peet a flirty woman. “The Way Way Back” (2013) is a coming-of-age flick that meshes elements of films like "The Squid and the Whale" (2005), “The Summer of ’42” (1971), “Meatballs” (1979), “Swimming” (2000) and “Lawn Dogs” (1997), but this is arguably the best of them. Part of the genius of the movie is that the potential stepfather (Carell) isn’t made out to be totally evil nor is the seeming mentor (Rockwell) perfect. They’re both flawed men with presumably good intentions toward the boy, but only one proves that he’s a worthy father-figure. Moreover, the all-around writing/acting smacks of real life. AnnaSophia is super cute on the female front while Zoe Levin is alluring as the pouty, bratty stepsister. Meanwhile Andria Blackman has a standout cameo as the girl in a yellow bikini. The film runs 1 hour, 43 minutes, and was shot in the Cape Code region of Massachusetts: Wareham & nearby Onset; Marshfield & nearby Duxbury. GRADE: A/A-

  Read full review ↓
• CinemaSerf2022-06-18
  ★ 6/10

  "Duncan" (Liam James) is a typical fourteen year old boy. He keeps himself to himself, and isn't greatly looking forward to his family holiday with mother and her boyfriend and his older teenage daughter. Determined to get away from this domestic bliss, he heads to the "Wizz" water park where he strikes up a friendship with one of the animal keepers "Owen" (Sam Rockwell). The latter sees something, perhaps of himself, in this younger lad and allows him to help him. As the summer progresses, both help the other to find an inner strength to deal with their demons - and, gradually, a newly empowered "Duncan" emerges ready to assert himself a little more. Whilst this isn't a great film, there is something about James's strong and personable performance that merits watching. His teenage angst is cleverly, subtly even, presented to us and his relationship with Rockwell, not an obvious friend for the boy, evolves by degree - and not always positively, either. There is way too much dialogue, and I found the family sub-plot with his over-bearing step-father "Trent" (Steve Carrell) and his really irritating daughter "Steph" (Zoe Levin) whom would cheerfully have left in the shark pen, got in the way of the intensity of this otherwise quite engaging exercise in bonding and maturing confidence. Worth a watch.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Sycamore Pictures

  US

• 

  OddLot Entertainment

  US

• TH

  The Walsh Company

  US

Key crew

• CastingAllison Jones
• Art DirectionJeremy Woodward
• Executive ProducerNat Faxon
• Set DecorationRena DeAngelo
• ProducerKevin J. Walsh
• ProducerTom Rice
• Executive ProducerGigi Pritzker
• Executive ProducerJim Rash
• EditorTatiana S. Riegel
• Executive ProducerGeorge Parra
• Executive ProducerBen Nearn
• Production DesignMark Ricker
• Stand InColleen Kelly
• First Assistant EditorDaniel Boccoli
• Unit Production ManagerColin Walsh

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• friendship
• beach
• shyness
• massachusetts
• conversation
• bicycle
• vacation
• stepfather
• love
• neighbor
• summer
• water park
• teenage boy
• awkwardness

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2013-01-21· Sundance Film Festival
• Theatrical2013-07-05PG-13

Also known as

International titles

• 心路源泉CN
• 往返之路CN
• Un camino hacia miAR
• Cet ete laFR
• Desde Muy Muy AtrasSV
• El camino de vueltaVE
• 더 웨이 웨이 백KR
• На заднем сиденииRU