Snack Shack (2024) review

Fourteen-year-old pals A.J. (Conor Sherry) and Moose (Gabriel LaBelle) can't stop coming up with nefarious ways of making money, between gambling on the puppies or brewing their own beer, so when A.J.'s parents (David Costabile and Gillian Vigman) demand he finds "real employment," the two boys get permission to run a snack booth next to their community pool, but things become messy once Air Force brat Brooke (Mika Abdalla) starts working as a lifeguard and she toys with both of them.  Writer-director Rehmeier, who based this on his experiences growing up in Nebraska in the early 1990's, seems to have a fondness for coming-of-age movies from that era (and earlier), but this mostly aims for rowdiness (there are bullies who pop up randomly) and rampant cursing and shouting: you can't say either of them learn a whole lot from the experience other than (a.) children like junk food and (b.) some girls are fickle.  It feels lived in (with the casual pacing), except it could have used more jokes and that ending leaves everything on a downbeat note - not even a cold one with the old man (who's also a judge) provides much consolation.