In Waves Film Adaptation Brings Hockney-Inspired Pop to Cancer Story

The French-Vietnamese director Phuong Mai Nguyen has adapted AJ Dungo's 2019 graphic novel "In Waves" into an animated feature film. The book, a best-seller translated into ten languages, recounts Dungo's relationship with Kristen, a passionate surfer who died of cancer at 25. The film, while not fully matching the book's quality and occasionally veering into sentimentality in its first half, develops its own style with pop colors and rounder forms inspired by David Hockney's Californian paintings. Nguyen, a graduate of Gobelins and La Poudrière in Valence, previously co-directed the series adaptation of Pénélope Bagieu's "Culottées." The film touches on Hawaiian surf culture and pioneer Duke Kahanamoku (1890–1968) but focuses more on the mystique of surfing and the harsh realities of illness, including amputation and repeated surgeries. A winter trip to Seattle serves as a poignant backdrop, blending snow and impending death. Kevin Morby's song "I Have Been to the Mountain" enhances the emotional impact.