Snack Shack… well… that wasn’t the silly nostalgic summer comedy I expected from the trailer.
I mean, it started out that way, sure. With all the fast-paced banter and shenanigans and whatnot that one would expect, even in a story like this set in Nebraska. I remember 1991… and this film feels enough like it to really land the nostalgia twang.
If you’ve seen enough movies or lived enough life (especially as a teenager), you know when “the girl” shows up it’s going to be some amount of trouble for the two best friends over the summer. There’s some comedy there… but then it it all gets done so well that it’s not really funny. It has actual feeling, it has meaning… it, again, lands that nostalgic twang (though not from any summer during high school and not that early in the 90s).
More hijinks ensue. There are laughs along the ways, but also that growing realization that this isn’t a comedy. It’s a classic coming of age story, with all the joy and pain that brings with it.
And then there’s the reminder that, sometimes, life makes you grow up a little bit faster than you planned on. And that things that seemed like big deals a week ago, really aren’t that important. And you discover what really is important.
And then things change again, because the summer’s over and nothing’s ever going to be the same as it was when it started.
So, yeah… when I dozed off after work and then woke up feeling out of sorts enough that I opted to not go out to any of the things I could have, I figured I’d queue up a silly summer nostalgia comedy.
And now I’m a bit maudlin and wistful for times gone by, friends long gone, chances never taken, and those oh-so-fleeting summers where anything was possible and nothing mattered more than your buddy and that girl…
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