Snack Shack

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Snack Shack
Snack Shack poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAdam Carter Rehmeier
Written byAdam Carter Rehmeier
Produced by Jordan Foley
Starring
CinematographyJean-Philippe Bernier
Edited byJustin Krohn
Music by Keegan DeWitt
Production
companies
Distributed by Republic Pictures [1] [2]
Release dates
  • March 13, 2024 (2024-03-13)(Nebraska City)
  • March 15, 2024 (2024-03-15)(United States)
Running time
112 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$4.5 million [3]
Box office$455,708 [1] [2]

Snack Shack is a 2024 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Adam Carter Rehmeier. Set in the summer of 1991, it stars Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle as a pair of teenage friends working at a community pool snack shack in Nebraska City. Mika Abdalla portrays a newcomer lifeguard who disrupts the friend duo's summer plans. Gillian Vigman, David Costabile, and Nick Robinson play supporting roles. The film's plot is semi-autobiographical, being loosely based on Rehmeier's childhood experience in Nebraska City. [4] MRC, Paperclip Limited, and T-Street produced the film. [5]

Contents

Snack Shack received a limited theatrical release in the United States on March 15, 2024, by Republic Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

Two teenage friends, A.J. Carter and Moose Miller, pursue various money-making schemes such as betting on dog races and brewing their own beer. These attempts are thwarted by their parents, leading them to bid on and win a city council auction to operate the Snack Shack at a community pool during the summer. [6] Their business is immediately successful, taking in over US$1,600 in revenue on its first day of operation.

A.J. and Moose's friendship is threatened when a young woman named Brooke moves in next door to A.J. They both fall for her. The daughter of a military man, she's only in town until he is reassigned. Moose is the more aggressive of the two and Brooke begins going out with him, although it's clear that she's more interested in A.J., who has helped her get a job as a lifeguard at the pool. This and Moose's shot-calling push tensions between the pair and increasingly jeopardize the Snack Shack, as does their increasingly heated conflict with older high schoolers, steroid addict wrestler brothers Randy and Rodney Carmichael.

A.J. relies on his friend, Shane Workman, for advice about dating and life in general. Shane is slightly older than A.J. and has just returned from a tour in the military. He and A.J. make plans to tour Alaska at the end of the summer.

Although the Snack Shack continues to thrive, A.J. and Moose quarrel about Brooke—leading to Moose punching A.J. in the face and ending their friendship. The pair solidify a separation by divvying up shifts after the Carmichaels trash the Snack Shack in their absence.

A.J. and Brooke are about to consummate their attraction to each other when they are interrupted by A.J.'s father, the Judge, who breaks the news that Shane has died in a car accident. The boys' shared grief brings them back together. Brooke grieves with them, but soon afterward her father is reassigned and she must leave Nebraska City and A.J. As Brooke leaves, A.J. and the Judge share a beer and a tender moment on their front porch.

Cast

Production

Development

Director Adam Carter Rehmeier based the premise of the film on his boyhood experience of operating the Steinhart Park Pool snack shack in his hometown of Nebraska City, Nebraska. [3]

Conor Sherry, then a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, was cast from a self-taped audition in a hotel room while he was isolating with COVID-19. [7] Gabriel LaBelle was cast for the movie in 2022 during production of the Steven Spielberg film The Fabelmans , which he starred in as Sammy Fabelman, a character loosely based on Spielberg. [5]

Filming

The six-week filming schedule of Snack Shack began in Nebraska City on July 25, 2022. The movie was supported by a $200,000 grant from the Nebraska state government and filming occurred entirely within the state. Supplemental locations included the Pioneer 3 Theater in Nebraska City as well as Henry Doorly Zoo and Horsemen’s Park (Renamed Statesman’s in the film) in Omaha. Production featured up to 65 cast and crew members with extras hired from the area. [4] [3]

Release

Paramount Pictures holds the distribution rights for Snack Shack under the Republic Pictures banner. The film was released in the United States on March 15, 2024. The distributor acquired the rights prior to the film's release being delayed by the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. [5] [6]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 77% of 30 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.2/10.The website's consensus reads: "Deftly directed by Adam Rehmeier, Snack Shack is a period-set coming-of-age comedy that's witty and charming enough to largely transcend its lack of originality." [8] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Calum Marsh of The New York Times praised the film, writing that "with its rambling momentum and quick-witted, almost musical dialogue, it feels less like Superbad than a Robert Altman movie, sort of like a pint-size California Split ." [9] Jesse Hassenger of Paste was also positive about the film, writing "This sentimentalization plagues so many nostalgia pieces aimed at ex-kids, though at least a movie that ultimately pushes its luck and stalls out befits the high-rolling teenagers at its center. Most of Snack Shack is a winning scheme." [10] Robert Kojder of Flickering Myth called it "a lively and fittingly crass coming-of-age story with a great deal of feeling, truthfulness, and period specificity." [11] J. Kim Murphy of Variety wrote "Armed with a talented cast, writer-director Adam Rehmeier's 1991-set feature happily squares itself in a tradition of teenage hedonism and broad learning opportunities, settling into a generic but warm glow." [12]

Matt Schimkowitz of The A.V. Club was mixed, saying "Even with the script's problems, the film is kinetic, and as in Dinner in America , Rehmeier gets terrific performances from his cast." [13] Kayla Turner of Screen Rant criticized the screenplay, saying that "The movie starts off quickly and provides an in-your-face introduction to the film's intended direction. However, the momentum quickly fizzles out, and the plot begins to meander towards the finish line, taking several unnecessary detours along the way." [14] Roger Moore of Movie Nation criticized it for being "very long" and "not that funny," and felt that it was a "comedy connected by disjointed and generally unoriginal scenes rather than a coherent narrative." [15]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Snack Shack (2024)". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved April 1, 2024. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. 1 2 "Snack Shack (2024)". The Numbers . Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 Hammel, Paul (August 11, 2022). "Nebraska native returns home to shoot film about youthful days in Nebraska City". Nebraska Examiner . States Newsroom. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Feature Film "Snack Shack" Begins Filming in Nebraska City". Nebraska Film Office. July 27, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 Grobar, Matt (September 7, 2022). "Gabriel LaBelle, Conor Sherry & Mika Abdalla To Star In Adam Carter Rehmeier's Coming-Of-Age Comedy 'The Snack Shack' For MRC Film And T-Street; Yeardley Smith's Paperclip Ltd Producing". Deadline Hollywood . Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  6. 1 2 Thrash, Steven (February 15, 2024). "Snack Shack's Wild Red Band Trailer Teases Just How Much Fun Summer Can Be". Movieweb. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  7. ↑ Thompson, Avery (February 26, 2024). "'Snack Shack' Rising Star Conor Sherry on 'Reliving' His Life in Coming-of-Age Film (Exclusive)". Hollywood Life. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Snack Shack". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  9. ↑ Marsh, Calum (March 14, 2024). "'Snack Shack' Review: The Kids Are Alright" . The New York Times. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  10. ↑ Hassenger, Jesse (March 14, 2024). "Snack Shack Finds a Fresh Angle on Tired Coming-of-Age Nostalgia". Paste. Paste Media Group. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  11. ↑ Kojder, Robert (March 13, 2024). "Movie Review – Snack Shack (2024)". Flickering Myth. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  12. ↑ Murphy, J. Kim (March 15, 2024). "'Snack Shack' Review: Gabriel LaBelle and Conor Sherry Play Teenage Hustlers in a By-the-Book Coming-of-Age Tale". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  13. ↑ Schimkowitz, Matt (March 15, 2024). "Snack Shack review: coming-of-age comedy is big on energy, light on laughs". The A.V. Club. Paste Media Group. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  14. ↑ Turner, Kayla (March 15, 2024). "Snack Shack Review: A Weightless Coming-Of-Age Comedy That's Hard To Care About". Screen Rant. Valnet Inc. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  15. ↑ Moore, Roger (March 4, 2024). "Movie Review: Teen Boys come of age in the "Snack Shack"". Movie Nation. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
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