Summer

I'm blown away. In a world where the IQ targets of movies have been declining for nearly four decades, where the iconic Coming of Age story has descended from the wit of The Graduate to the banality of Friends, where Whale Rider has seemed the best since Flirting because Hollywood keeps lowering the bar, I have just seen a wonderful film called Summer.

Summer, from Canada, appears to have been shot for such a small budget that it puts to final rest the adage `You get what you pay for.' True, you can plainly see how little was paid in cheap filming medium and a few editing gaps, and the filming locations are appalling in their ordinariness (isn't most of the inhabited world?), but this film is outstanding for two reasons. First, the story: Coming of Age, AKA Who Am I and How Can I Become Who I Really Am?, the all-time Third Best Plot (the Best Plot being Love is Everything, the Second Best being Goodness Will Win). For a first film on a subject that's been done so often, it manages to be funny, touching, really insightful and very much worth watching. And second, the acting is extraordinary.

This movie is about three kids, no four kids, no six, no. it's about all kids, actually. At least the ones who graduate from (whatever) and find themselves facing The Cold, Cruel, Scary World. Charlie (Michael Rubenfeld) has succeeded due to his belief in boldness. Stefanie (Karen Cliché) worries that her chosen profession (acting) is not one where one meets lots of good people. Miller, (Joe Cobden) is lost, so unsure of his path that he just wants to play for a summer or maybe longer.. And, Ella (Amy Sloan), Miller's girlfriend, faces The Cold, Cruel, Scary World by attacking it before it attacks her. They beautifully illustrate ways that young people face their second toughest decision (the first being Who Will I Marry and third being Where Will I Live? both of which get some play in this movie as well).

The time is the Last Summer Before It Starts. They hold court at a swimming pool the size of a small world that is their turf until it is taken over by a `pool Nazi.' (The rendition was so cartoonish that this character didn't belong in this film). They drink to excess (none of them smoke, which I found really refreshing; no tobacco industry product placements here). They make new friends, couple and uncouple, listen to the best recorded music in recent films for young people and face crises in ways that determine their trajectories. This isn't a film that will appeal to those who thrive on car chases, explosions and computer-animated fantastic martial arts feats. The kids aren't crude or inexplicably mindless; everything they do and say reveals their conflicted intelligence and appeal.

Miller is the emotional center of the film, a kid who is facing the choice of working in an antiquarian bookstore or going to another city to do something big and bold in business. Ella, played by an actress so attractive and fresh it's hard to believe that she hasn't been sucked into the Hollywood black hole yet, wants to be a physician and feels the need to start working towards it Right Now, even if that jeopardizes her relationship with Miller. As a result, Miller feels driven into the orbit of a woman who sends red flags up in everyone but him. His apology is one of the most nakedly touching I have ever seen on film. Yet it is topped by another-delivered by someone who was was, to that point, the film's least interesting character-who also makes a bad choice of the heart, and takes the stage and humbles herself before friends and strangers alike in a monologue of almost Shakespearian power even if its subject and delivery are 100% today.

In the end we are left feeling that we have become friends with some remarkable young people, and are the richer for it. What more can you ask from a movie, especially a first feature film shot for so little money, the kind that screens in very non-prime hours on small audience-share TV stations? A movie that isn't available on DVD? But however overlooked, Summer is a gem, clearly a 10, one I dearly wish there were a way to share with my wife and my three twentysomething sons.

I didn't intend to watch this movie. It was on tv and I just caught it 2 minutes into the film. Funny lines and immediately interesting characters kept me absorbed but the moment they ended up at the pool (one of the main locations in the movie - the meeting place and hang-out spot for the characters) with jazzy electronic music playing on the soundtrack I was hooked. Movies about college grads hanging out and coming to terms with what they are going to do with their lives has been done many times before but I have to say this is the best of the bunch. The situations the characters have to deal with are similar to what most people of that age have to deal with, which makes everyone immediately identifiable. The acting from the young and unknown, yet extremely talented cast is superb, the story and pacing are spot on, never dragging at all and the music is a delight. I can't fault the movie in any area. Phil Price seems to come from the same generation of young film makers who grew up on John Hughes movies (Kevin Smith is another example) and like Smith's characters the characters in the movie even talk about John Hughes movies. Thing is unlike works from Smith, Richard Linklater, et al, this one won't be seen by many people and not fully appreciated. It is really too bad, as this beats them hands down.

No, no, no ... don't pass this movie up because of the limp description in your TV guide! Yes, you've got your standard college students coming of age theme here, but this time it is delivered in a rich and incredibly entertaining way. Okay, it is a Canadian production but the expected Canadian drollness has a most satisfying edge. What most impresses me about this movie is the clever dialog ... but dialog is nothing if not delivered well. No worries here. The acting chops of everyone in this flick blended that dialog into their characters seamlessly. The soundtrack for this production is also superb. Overall, this movie was truly a delightful surprise. I will definitely watch it again.

I saw this movie at about 7 years ago while channel surfing and fell in love, and now years later, Im still searching for it. I will never forget thinking this is one of the most sweet, funny and realistic movies I've ever seen (possibly because I had just graduated), and Canadian to boot. The characters were so well acted that a simple story reflects with humour the complexities associated with moving into adulthood. This is a great movie with a small cast and probably smaller budget, but there's movie magic in this little film. If you have the opportnity to catch this film, give it a chance, it'll charm you. Why isn't it available on DVD!?!?!?!?

Somewhere between childhood and 'growing up' is summer. (Oooo, deep.)

Seriously, this is a great little movie. There is a beautiful camaraderie between the three main characters. And of the three, there's at least one character with whom you can find a familiarity with. That is, if you ever happened to be an out-of-school but out-of-'real'-work, slightly direction less twenty-something. (Hey, we've all been there, and now more than ever, there seem to be more of us.)

The cast works as wonderfully believable slackers, especially one of my current favourites actresses, Karen Cliché. (Also, if you liked Joe Cobden in this movie, check out 'Suddenly Naked'. He's even better in that.)

Please, do yourself a favour and check out this indie gem. 9 out of 10