What do you do after you win a pair of Oscars for writing The Descendants? Make your directorial debut, of course. This is the lucky path that Nat Faxon (Beerfest) and Jim Rash (Community‘s Dean Pelton) took following their success with Alexander Payne‘s drama, and it continued to Sundance Film Festival this year with the premiere of their summer coming-of-age comedy, The Way, Way Back.
Picked up for nearly $10 million by Fox Searchlight, we said in our review that the film is a “a widely-appealing, coming-of-age tale that takes place amidst a flurry of familial problems and quirky characters” and “though this type of description has become a stigma for many a film that has premiered in Park City, Faxon and Rash are smarter than the clichés they are utilizing in this narrative.” Ahead of a summer release, check out the charming first trailer below for the film starring Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, AnnaSophia Robb, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Amanda Peet, Rob Corddry and Liam James.
Synopsis:
THE WAY, WAY BACK is the funny and poignant coming-of-age story of 14-year-old Duncan’s (Liam James) summer vacation with his mother, Pam (Toni Collette), her overbearing boyfriend, Trent (Steve Carell), and his daughter Steph (Zoe Levin). Having a rough time fitting in, the introverted Duncan finds an unexpected friend in gregarious Owen (Sam Rockwell), manager of the Water Wizz water park. Through his funny, clandestine friendship with Owen, Duncan slowly opens up and begins to finally find his place in the world—all during a summer he will never forget.
The Way, Way Back opens on July 5th.