With the start of October, the summer was coming to a close and paving the way for The Fall, a movie season that would feature many promising A24 titles vying for awards attention. Given how the previous months featured everything from highly acclaimed horror with Midsommar (2019) to meaningful dramas like The Farewell (2019) to very bizarre pseudo comedies with The Death of Dick Long (2019), it was a banner year for the indie studio and one that would go down as their most impressively diverse. But, before saying goodbye to summer there was one more film to take a crack at the warm nostalgia of hanging out with friends and discovering hidden treasure. While Low Tide (2019) wasn’t a runaway hit, it was an impressive smaller film from a studio that could reliably distribute them.
The story begins with first time director Kevin McMullin. Over the course of his career, he had produced several shorts as well as various commercials with his friend and cinematographer Andrew Ellmaker. It only made sense that he would turn his attention to feature films, eventually deciding on the story that would become Low Tide. While not autobiographical, McMullin based the story around his time living in the Jersey Shore area in New Jersey. During his youth, he did various jobs depicted in the story, such as working at carnivals. With a loving nostalgia for this world, he decided to highlight a story that not only reflected the attractiveness of the area, but also the quieter, more desolate areas where he escaped with his friends.
The idea was to reflect a pivotal year in childhood where friends were beginning to find their own identity. Some would completely change their personalities while others doubled down on certain behaviors. McMullin was also attracted to the idea of buried treasure because of his own life. He cites a family member who would go out with a metal detector and look for random heirlooms that were dropped in the sand. Believing that money also symbolized wealth and stability, he used it as a driving motivation for the characters. Given that he wrote the original draft with the final images in mind, he made the film also as a pseudo-pirate story.
When starting to cast, he began with Jaeden Martell, who had personally impressed him in the Bill Murray film St. Vincent (2014). As he watched him evolve, eventually gaining popularity with IT (2017), he decided to cast him in the lead. Other actors like Alex Neustaedter sent in auditions, noticing in the present the potential of McMullin’s vision. As the cast came together, it became clear that McMullin would be a modest filmmaker, able to give his actors enough freedom to perform in ways that made them comfortable. Even then, the director personally believes that he was too co-dependent on his debut feature, believing that he needed to stick close to the storyboards and create the vision he had in mind.
As expected, Ellmaker joined immediately. They already had a shorthand for many of the ideas that McMullin would conceive. Their plan to shoot around New Jersey worked out to their advantage, as the sky managed to have a striking experience, with the blistering heat making an authentic ecosystem for the actors who were noticeably seen sweating. They would apply sunscreen in-between scenes, doing everything to not grow exhausted. With that said, the location shooting was not without minor conflicts. Neustaedter claimed that the bugs were especially vicious and bit into everyone’s skin. He notes a scene where Martell had to lay still and had a bug land on him, causing the actor pain. Even with these hurdles, they claimed to have a good time filming.
The film would premiere at The Tribeca Film Festival in April 2019 to positive reviews. It was there that they were picked up by A24 and DirecTV which would perform a limited release. The numbers weren’t noteworthy, but the general feedback for the film was good. Many praised the effort, especially for a lower budget movie. McMullin sought out to make a film that was cinematic in scope and succeeded thanks to close collaboration, managing to convey the adventure story in an effectively tense and emotional way. The film was also nominated for Best Narrative Feature at Tribeca.
As mentioned, Low Tide received significantly positive reviews. Given that most DirecTV titles were poorly received, it was impressive to see critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes give the film a 72%. Peter Debruge of Variety lead the positive reviews, claiming “Kevin McMullin channels the feel of Stephen King's 'Stand by Me,' along with various noir-toned '80s films, in this coming-of-age thriller.” Jackie K. Cooper shared the sentiment when noting that “A fresh faced cast bring talent and energy to this tale of life and crime on the Jersey shore. It is under the radar but should be sought out.” Rex Reed of Observer was one of the few who disagreed when chiming in “There is insufficient character development and insight, and the film has no ending, so the viewer just hangs in space, asking a million questions for which there are no answers.”
With an overall positive experience, McMullin is looking ahead to his next feature. He claims that while filming Low Tide he was working on his second film. He wrote a draft on a story focusing on something completely different from a young boy enjoying his summer: an aging couple. As of this publication, next to nothing is known about this project. IMDb has claimed that the title is Made in Abyss but also has no announced release date.
Still, it’s exciting to see what he comes with next, especially as he claims that he wants to push himself to try something new. For now, Low Tide is an admirable debut that does plenty to establish McMullin’s voice as a filmmaker with a pretty impressive use of acting and storytelling. It may not be the most exceptional film that A24 released in 2019, but it’s a minor charmer worth checking out. For now, things were turning back to the realm of chaos with the return of a beloved director previously endorsed by Satanists. In his second feature, he took a turn more towards the absurd while making one of the most quotable A24 films of the year along with stable actor Robert Pattinson making some of his most deranged acting decisions yet. Oh yeah, and it got an Oscar nomination, too!
Up Next: The Lighthouse (2019)
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