Originally Premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the Sundance Kids Selection.
"Summering" focuses on four best friends on the brink of starting middle school realize their lives are about to change forever. On the last weekend of summer, they set out to make the most of it. James Ponsoldt had a promising career with his directing films. Off the Black was a decent debut project, Smashed and The Spectacular Now were amazing and touching, and The End of the Tour was pretty good. But The Circle was a mess of a film and it felt like Ponsoldt threw away his talent in that project. I was hoping Summering would be a much better film.
I really wanted to like this, but unfortunately it really feels sloppy. Summering has good intentions as it's about a coming of age story. Girlhood, friendship and on the verge to encounter the harsh parts of reality. Ponsoldt shows his passion for this project but the story itself feels really all over the place. The main core itself felt like there were many themes and concepts trying to be put together and it makes it a mess since the film doesn't really focus on it's themes as much as it wanted too. It tries to be a mix of comedy, coming of age drama, some spooky elements and such. While some concepts did work out, as an overall story, it feels sloppy and it felt like Ponsoldt had too many ideas in one.
"Summering" does have some pros. The production and set designs does have a nostalgic feel to it. The colorful backgrounds and presentations helps to create a 80s, 90s or early 2000s feel of growing up. The performances from the cast were mediocre. Nobody had a terrible performance and they did their best to play their characters. However the dialogue does drag the performances because the words spoken from the child actors felt like words written by an adult and it makes the film unrealistic. There was certain parts where I thought that the words that were spoken was so unrealistic that no child would ever speak that way.
The characters themselves weren't as interesting to connect with and the film really feels like a tone down version of Stand By Me. It's a shame because Ponsoldt had a promising career but unfortunately he hasn't improved much from his last disaster "The Circle". The soundtrack wasn't great, the pacing could be improved and the execution was bland for the most part.
Ponsoldt wasn't able to create a good film here and it ends up becoming forgettable by the end of the day. It's no doubt there is good intentions in this movie but there is still a lot to improve for the story. Young children may enjoy this film but I would recommend The Sandlot, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Way, Way Back or The Kings of Summer for a better coming of age movie.
Rating: D+
