"Snack Shack" and "Goodrich"

Heartwarming 2024 male self-discovery movies on tap today.

Let's start with "Snack Shack," which is about the adventures of two fourteen year-olds, AJ (Conor Sherry) and Moose (Gabriel LaBelle), finding ways to make cash in the summer of 1991.  Written and directed by Adam Carter Rehmeier, the movie is crude, sophomoric, and clearly based on actual events.  AJ and Moose are constantly running shady schemes and earning the disapproval of their parents.  Eventually, an older friend, Shane (Nick Robinson), who lifeguards at the local community pool, points them toward running the poolside Snack Shack.  Simultaneously, the appearance of a new girl in town, Brooke (Mika Abdalla), threatens to turn AJ and Moose against each other.

You'll notice immediately that Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle are twenty-something actors who do not pass for fourteen year-olds.  However, "Snack Shack" would be a lot less funny and endearing if we were watching actual fourteen year-olds doing some of the things that AJ and Moose get up to onscreen.  Their ingenuity seems endless, from fermenting their own beer to writing vulgarities on the hot dogs and charging an extra 75 cents.  Also, Sherry and LaBelle are such winning actors, who so deftly replicate the relationship that fourteen year-old boys have with each other - constantly putting each other down, random wrestling bouts, and enabling each other's worst ideas - that I couldn't bring myself to care too much.   

The movie, set in Nebraska City, Nebraska, is sunny, shaggy, and full of kids doing dumb and/or outrageous things just because they can.  The rivalries and beefs and existential crises are easily played for laughs, and it's only in the rare moment that a little real life heartache finds its way into the boys' summer, reminding us that this part of their lives will be over too quickly.   The only thing that really struck me as odd is that "Snack Shack" doesn't have any of the cultural signifiers for a piece of media set in the early 90s, but this might be because I'm not from the Midwest.  However, that speaks well to the longevity of "Snack Shack," which is one of the better screen surprises from last year.

Now on to a protagonist at a very different point in life.  Workaholic Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) receives a call one night from his wife Naomi (Laura Benanti), informing him that she's checked into 90 day rehab for a pill addiction he didn't know about, and he'll have to take care of their nine year-old twins, Billie (Vivien Lyra Blair) and Mose (Jacob Kopera).  As Andy struggles with new parenting responsibilities and escalating crises at work, he also rekindles his relationship with his grown-up daughter Grace (Mila Kunis) from a previous marriage, who is about to have a baby.

They really don't make enough films like "Goodrich" these days, which is the kind of adult dramedy that is really invested in its characters as fallible, but also wonderfully sympathetic and changeable human beings.  From interviews with writer/director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, the movie was specifically written for Michael Keaton, playing a basically good guy who realizes that he's neglected his family, and tries to fix this.  The process is frustrating and Andy takes some wrong steps, but it's also a voyage of discovery.  He's able to make all kinds of new connections and explore different parts of himself through fatherhood.  And he actually gets to know some of those closest to him for the first time.

What I really appreciate about "Goodrich" is that it's heartwarming and life-affirming, but actually fairly low on schmaltz.  Keaton is warm, but not cuddly.  He's still very capable of being an ass, and it takes Grace spelling it out for him to realize that he needs to be there for all of his kids, not just the ones who can't drive yet.  I also like that the movie is allowed to be leisurely and incidental, so there's room for a subplot with a potential client played by Carmen Ejogo, and his career is given real weight and stakes, so it isn't something that can just be brushed aside lightly.  

In other words, Andy Goodrich feels like a real person, living in a recognizable, present-day Los Angeles, sorting out realistic, everyday priorities.  And these days, that's not an easy feat to achieve in any kind of film.  And I'm glad I got to see Keaton in it, being subtle and charming, and nailing a role that's perfect for him.

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