Rating: R | Runtime: 112 minutes
Release Date: March 15th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Republic Pictures
Director(s): Adam Rehmeier
Writer(s): Adam Rehmeier

We don’t say goodbye.. just see you later.

It may not take place at an amusement park like Adventureland or The Way, Way Back, but Adam Rehmeier’s (writer/director of the great Dinner in America) latest film Snack Shack contains the same sort of teenage hijinks and first love that serve as a staple of the summer-job-meets-coming-of-age genre. The difference is that A.J. (Conor Sherry) and Moose (Gabriel LaBelle) don’t need the locale to cause trouble. Working the snack counter at their neighborhood pool circa 1991 is merely their latest scheme—a quasi-punishment for getting caught within their many other schemes. It soon teaches them money isn’t everything.

The opening prologue perfectly encapsulates the vibe of what’s coming with the fast-talking, almost affected dialogue between BFFs A.J. and Moose as they decide to risk missing their school bus so they can let their afternoon’s winnings ride on one more dog race happening at the across-state-lines OTB they’ve marked as their new summer headquarters. The way they talk to each other, manipulate their teachers, and fall to pieces in front of A.J.’s parents (Gillian Vigman and David Costabile) provide the rhythm while their easy nature with an older friend (Nick Robinson’s Desert Storm vet) and naïveté with girls (namely Mika Abdalla’s summer transplant Brooke) sets the narrative stage.

This is a pivot point for these boys. Despite being inseparable troublemakers until now, the divide between responsibilities (A.J. generally relegated with the “work” while Moose glad-hands and schmoozes) is becoming more and more glaring as their plans grow more complex. Will A.J. stand-up to Moose and realize his brains are what bring the latter’s ideas to life? Will Moose’s uninhibited demeanor and charisma make it so he “steals” everything A.J. covets but is too shy to pursue? It’s a profanity-laced, unlikely success story that positions its orchestrators to receive everything they could possibly want just as those wants simultaneously diverge or, worse, target things that cannot be shared.

While Snack Shack has its moments of sentimentality and familiarity, it never falls prey to bringing its conventions to life conventionally. Robinson is the “sage” purveyor of wisdom and de facto bodyguard for his young friends, but he’s also a cautionary tale insofar as portraying how doing things “the right way” might not always be “the right way.” He admires A.J. and Moose for their ingenuity as much as they idolize him for being their hero. Abdalla is the love interest fated to create a triangle that will pit these “brothers” against each other, but she’s also the catalyst for waking them up to the fact that they aren’t kids anymore. Their dynamic must evolve to remain friends into the future.’

It’s a fun ride that works best when it’s unhinged (LaBelle is fantastic as the smooth-talking con man who swears at children and bribes delivery drivers), but it’s more dramatic moments still pack a punch as a result. And just because the plans that are hatched and romances that are born may end up being permanently relegated to the memory of this one summer, don’t presume it means A.J. and Moose end up in the exact same place as they were at the start. These boys go through the emotional wringer to become indelibly changed even as they decide to play it back and do it all again next year.

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Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle in SNACK SHACK; courtesy of Republic Pictures/Paramount.