Snack Shack

Review: In this 2024 comedy, 14-year-old best friends AJ (Conor Sherry) & Moose (Gabriel LaBelle) work at their local community pool snack bar and have some adolescent adventures along the way. And it’s brilliant. One of the best films of the year (in my personal top 5 as of now) & what I have feeling will be the most underrated. This was an under the radar movie that made $455K at the box office and is now streamable on a few different platforms, and I couldn’t recommend it enough. Newcomer Conor Sherry is great in one of his first lead film role. And Gabriel LaBelle is an up and coming star. I’ve seen him in two things with a third on the horizon and he’s already proven his versatility. In this film he’s the swearing, conman-esque, hustler Moose while in ‘The Fabelmans’ he plays a green, wide-eyed, young Sammy Fabelman (a character based on Steven Spielberg). Another film he has coming out this year is ‘Saturday Night’ in which he plays producer & SNL creator, Lorne Michaels, in a role I’m sure will land somewhere in the middle. Also worth noting are Mika Abdalla (Brooke) & Nick Robinson (Shane). Both play their respective roles brilliantly and feel like real people you’d know growing up.

High: This movie has everything a coming-of-age movie needs. It’s nostalgic. I’m sure if you were a teen in the 90s that even more true. I didn’t grow up in the 90s (nor was I even alive), however I did used to be a teenage boy. These guys are more entrepreneurial, crass, & bold than I was, however it still encapsulates that feeling of teenage life. And I don’t think this movie is exclusively relatable for guys. Just being a teenager and having friends, doing dumb stuff, and not knowing what to do day to day. It’s just great.

Low: SPOILERS The death of Nick Robinson’s character felt so random. Like the story made it work, but it felt unexpected in a bad way. The movie just wasn’t emotional in that way and then boom car crash.

Rating: 8.5/10