Snack Shack Review: Gabriel LaBelle and Conor Sherry Anchor an Entertaining Summer Coming-of-Age Movie

   September 21, 2024

Snack Shack is an uncomplicated good time, anchored by two excellent and innocent performances by Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle as 14-year-olds A.J. and Moose, respectively. Director Adam Rehmeier flexes his ability to tap into the mind of today’s youth and deliver a movie that is laugh out loud funny with a charming, heartfelt story.

snack shack 2024 movie
Gabriel LaBelle and Conor Sherry in Snack Shack (2024), directed by Adam Rehmeier

Snack Shack Review

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Snack Shack is an uncomplicated good time, anchored by two excellent and innocent performances by Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle as 14-year-olds A.J. and Moose, respectively. The two are inseparable best friends looking to make a quick buck during the hot, sweaty summer months. The kids have so many plans that it’s hard to stick to just one moneymaking scheme – betting on horse races, selling batches of homebrew to high schoolers – but they ultimately land on running the local pool’s snack shack.

The script is dynamite here, running a mile a minute and allowing the two central performers to cook. Gabriel LaBelle is particularly loudmouthed, cursing left and right, and essentially asking to get popped in the mouth by just about every person he runs into. The dialogue is quite quippy and has to be delivered with a certain speed and rhythm to work, and he makes it look easy.

And while Conor Sherry doesn’t have quite the same screen presence, the youthful innocence and lack of real-world experiences shines through the most with him. These young teen coming-of-age dramedies rely on a spry level of pathos that doesn’t quite tip over into being too sentimental or cutesy, and Snack Shack‘s braggadocios energy and brash script gives it an edge that keeps it consistently engaging.

The movie is a bit uneven as the plot develops. I found the first half much more inviting than the second. The second act conflict between A.J. and Moose is obvious and manufactured for the sake of structure, but the movie shines brightest when there isn’t an engineered plot device at work. It’s like it begins as a sincere Linklater riff (like a new era’s Dazed and Confused), but realizes it needs to put a story in motion halfway through.

And the third act devolves even further with a climax that is much too melodramatic and serious to match the rest of the film’s tone, and honestly comes out of nowhere. Again, this climax (the death of one Snack Shack‘s side characters) is used to bring A.J. and Moose back together, but it’s easy to see right through the movie’s intentions.

But the charisma and grounded stakes still keep Snack Shack afloat. There are some questionable storytelling decisions that keep me from calling it one of the 2024’s best movies overall, but it’s still a delightful surprise with an incredible (honestly Oscar nomination worthy) performance from LaBelle and an equally impressionable performance from Sherry. Some fat could’ve been trimmed from it, but director Adam Rehmeier flexes his ability to tap into the mind of today’s youth and deliver a movie that is laugh out loud funny with a charming, heartfelt story.

Score: 7/10

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Cinephile Corner included Snack Shack in its ranking of the best movies midway through 2024.

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