Snack Shack: 2024's Underrated Coming-of-Age Comedy

We’re making the big bucks with this snack shack!

Snack Shack is a 2024 film. Two teen best friends who love hustling are hired to run their local swimming pool’s snack shack for the summer. As money builds up, so do romantic tensions when they meet a new girl.

It’s movies like Snack Shack that deserve more promotion because then they drift into the museum of underrated movies. Snack Shack is a slice-of-life film about the teen years. This funny story about friendship encourages viewers to live each day to the fullest and let the little things go.

Boys will be boys. Conor Sherry and Gabriel LaBelle are excellent as A.J. and Moose, two best friends who love hustling money. Their dynamic is so fun to watch onscreen, right down to finishing each other's sentences.

Tensions (and puberty) get the better of them and they have tiffs with romance. Each actor did a great job on their part, playing it naturally. The best moment of the movie is when they’re so overcome with relief and hug each other. They are good kids.

The film includes supporting talents from Nick Robinson, an actor who has shown versatility. Mika Abdaillo stars as Brooke, the girl next door who causes a rift in the boy's friendship. However, Abdaillo doesn’t play the role in the usual fashion, stepping between the boys to break up their arguments.

The same goes for A.J.’s parents, played by David Castebile and Gillian Vigman. I laughed when the mom rallied off different punishment sentences. You always need to play characters differently, instead of influencing the same tropes.

Snack Shack is funny! There’s clever dialogue, direction, and background moments. You have to witness the profane line they write on customers' hotdogs! There’s one scene when the boys throw garbage at what they believe is their nemesis car only for the driver to turn into someone you don’t want to break the law with.

Snack Shack was filmed in Nebraska City. You can’t pick a better setting than a swimming pool. It’s a popular summer activity to spend time with friends and take a dip in the pool. And the 90s! It feels like the era.

Each location and neighborhood is authentic to the story. As filmmakers studied the area, they were surprised to have homeowners offer their residences and backyards to film scenes in.

Credit is due to Adam Rehmeir for directing a genuine film. The film is somewhat autobiographical, basing it on his own adolescence in Nebraska City. Like the boys, Rehmeir also liked hustling for cash and he ran a food stand with his best friend.

He’s had this story in mind for at least two decades and focused on implementing the themes in a different format. All scenes are directed with the unexpected.

As the boys clean up the old food stand and make good deals, this film distributes a positive message about teens getting summer jobs. Teenagers need to do something with their time and having jobs helps them discover what they like to do. It also allows them to be responsible.

Snack Shack is a friendship movie, with romance and adolescence themes tossed in. Unlike other coming-of-age films, it’s more subtle in its route. It had unexpected heartwarming moments and one revelation that shocked both my friend and me.

Snack Shack is on Amazon Prime. My friend and I had a fun time watching it, laughing at the many funny lines. Get your friends together, watch the film, and recommend it. Snack Shack deserves an audience.