May 13, 2026 1:16am PT

‘In Waves’ Review: Elegantly Animated Adaptation of AJ Dungo’s Bestseller Is an Unapologetically Conventional Tearjerker

Featuring English-language voice turns by Stephanie Hsu and Will Sharpe, Phuong Mai Nguyen’s earnest Cannes Critics' Week opener is at its best when focusing on its central couple’s resilience of spirit.

Tomris Laffly

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Tomris Laffly

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Courtesy of Charades

A doomed love story, especially one based on real-life young people braving their own “The Fault in Our Stars”-style tale, is bound to shatter even the coldest of hearts. Earnest, disarming and unapologetically conventional, prolific graphic artist Phuong Mai Nguyen’s elegantly animated feature debut “In Waves” grasps this fact on such a philosophical level that it aims to do not a great deal more than wash over the viewer with its raw sentiments. Right out of the gate, you can see a soft-hearted tearjerker on approach like a rolling wave, one that will inevitably swell in size and break at the exact spot that you’ve been standing.

'In Waves’ Review: Elegantly Animated Adaptation of AJ Dungo’s Bestseller Is an Unapologetically Conventional Tearjerker