Set in Nebraska City, Nebraska 1991, teenagers A. J. Carter (Conor Sherry) and his scheming friend Moose Miller (Gabriel LaBelle) try their hand at various get rich quick schemes from placing bets at off track betting parlors to brewing their own beer to sell to other high schoolers. After their parents put a stop to their questionable activities the two empty their savings accounts in order to place an exorbitant bid on the snack shack at the community pool as A. J. now has to pay back the money to avoid being sent to military school. Over the course of the summer A. J. experiences romance, tragedy, and struggle.
Snack Shack is the sophomore mainstream directorial effort of Adam Carter Rehmeier following his 2020 film Dinner in America. The film is a semi-autobiographical film with Rehmeier having based significant parts of the film off his own experience manning a pool shack in his youth. While I found the film to be an acquired tasted due to its purposefully abrasive characters, there is an unmistakable air of authenticity to the film that once I emersed myself in did win me over.
Being set at the start of the 90s, Snack Shack has an air of similar films from the decade that preceded (Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the like) or even more modern ones such as Adventureland. Both Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle give strong performances and have good chemistry as A. J. and Moose, and while their introduction doesn't initially present them as the most likable of characters it does feel true to form in that phase of brash overconfidence that adolescent boys often go through as they approach adulthood. Despite having a heavy focus on shenanigans and risky behavior the movie does also showcase the humanizing aspects of the characters particularly regarding the major milestones of first loves or an untimely tragedy that carry strong weight.
While I didn't enjoy Snack Shack as much as some similar films in this genre (such as The Way Way Back or Adventureland) I did appreciate the film for its authentic presentation that captured not only the look of its time and place but also the feel. The characters are flawed but human and there's a strong core to the movie once you get to know it beyond its slightly abrasive surface.
