Los Angeles (AFP)

Barely handed over scandals of sexual abuse and the #Metoo movement, Hollywood has this year made toxic masculinity one of his favorite themes, as the difficult father-son relations cleverly explored by "Waves", independent film noticed by the critics and who could make their way to the Oscars.

Brad Pitt's "Joker" or "Ad Astra" have already evoked the damage that some fathers can inflict on their son, but none has tackled the subject of the overwhelming paternal figure as much as "Waves". , by the young American director Trey Edward Shults.

"Intimate Adventure" for the Hollywood Reporter, an Expressionist "punch" for the New York Times that praises its cinematographic qualities, the film portrays the well-regulated life of a wealthy black Miami family who seems to be smiling. A routine that collapses suddenly and turns to the "ultimate tragedy" in a series of incidents that would seem almost commonplace taken in isolation.

Trey Edward Shults was inspired by his own father-in-law to portray the strict patriarch who pushes his offspring to always train more, obsessed with his athletic success. This excessive pressure will result in an impressive injury during a wrestling match in high school that will trigger the descent into hell of the whole family.

"This is a warning against the idea that we are traditionally virile," says the director to AFP. "We do not need to build this outer shell, we can be vulnerable, we can communicate," he insists.

Compared by some to a "Rebel Generation" in the era of Instagram, "Waves" is produced by A24, a small independent studio that had already signed "Moonlight", Oscar for best film in 2017.

To forge his main character, Trey Edward Shults also used the long exchanges he had with one of his favorite actors, Kelvin Harrison, whose father musician desperately tried to follow him in his footsteps.

"We were doing this kind of intense therapy sessions, he was talking about the state of mind of his father, the father of his father ...", remembers the director.

- "Liberator but hard" -

Another poignant moment of "Waves" is taken directly from Trey Edward Shults, when a protagonist of the film refuses to go to the bedside of his dying father, with whom he has broken contact for years, and finds himself almost dragged to hospital by his girlfriend.

Turning this scene was "terrifying," he says. "It was like a fear that takes your belly and fills you, makes you relive a great trauma ... It was liberating, but it was hard."

The film sparked controversy as it features a black family while its director is a 31-year-old white boy from Texas.

Trey Edward Shults acknowledges that the experience was intimidating and "a big responsibility," but he claims to have had the idea of ​​this story without particularly thinking about the color of the protagonists.

The themes of the film are universal, family and pain, insists the director. According to him, the racial aspect is only secondary even if, during a scene, the patriarch encamped by Sterling K. Brown ("This Is Us") tells his son: "We can not afford the luxury of to be average ".

"It's all from Kel (Harrison's wine) and his dad, they've had exactly that conversation," says the director.

He asserts that the choice of a black family really came when the young man, whom he had revealed to the public in his previous movie, "It Comes At Night", said he wanted to play in "Waves".

© 2019 AFP