I couldn't help but think to myself that the family portrayed in Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio's feature debut and Sundance Award-winning In the Summers felt like my own in many ways, an underplayed sizzle played out over the years that offers less drama and more realism.
A couple of years ago, my own mother passed away and I was this weird tapestry of inexplicable grief and emotional nothingness as I flew in from the Seattle vacation I was on when I received the call informing me of her death. The years hadn't so much been unkind to our relationship as they had dissolved it into a weird, sad detachment.
In the Summer is similar. Lacorazza Samudio sets the film across four summer family visits spanning 20 years. Each episode finds the father, Vicente (Renè Pérez Joglar, also performing under Residente), picking up his daughters from the airport in Las Cruces, New Mexico where he now resides in his late mother's home. Each visit seems to become less emotionally centered, an interesting fact since the first visit when the girls, Violet and Eva, are young doesn't exactly fit the description of emotionally centered.
I have often wondered what went wrong in my own family. How did we reach the end of my parents' lives with such a sense of detachment? How am I not riddled with daily grief over the loss of my mother? How does the rapidly declining health of my father not fill me with terror? How do I not know who these people are? And, perhaps more importantly, why do I not care?
There has been no real drama between us, though I suppose one could describe my own early childhood years as abusive in certain ways that mostly didn't involve my parents. Instead, it seems, the erosion of our relationship played out over time and by the time we began to notice it became too late.
In the Summers addresses a similar erosion, captured bit by bit over the years as we watch two girls change while observing a father whose inability to change ultimately changes his relationship with his children.
He tries to be the loving father, it would appear he even genuinely wants to be, yet he is seemingly incapable of existing as anything more what many of us have known over the years - a father in biological title only. We initially get the impression that Vicente has inherited wealth, his home featuring a well-kept pool that becomes less well-kept over the years. Indeed, "his" home never feels like "their" home and even summer visit rituals like a visit to a locally owned bar run by Vicente's longtime friend Carmen (Emma Ramos) feels different in each episodic visit. Over time, we begin to realize that Vicente's drinking, and perhaps more, is a factor in the disintegrating relationship he has with his daughters.
Vicente's daughters are each played by three different actresses over the years - Luciana Elisa Quinonez, Allison Salinas, and Sasha Calle as Eva; Dreya Castillo, Kimaya Thais, and Lio Mehiel as Violeta. This approach can be distracting, however, here it resonates with the changing personas of both Eva and Violeta and how they transform themselves into different young girls, young women, and women over the years. The ensemble is uniformly strong, Calle and Mehiel particularly captivating primarily because their shifts are more pronounced and we can't help but be drawn in by who they're becoming and who Vicente is not becoming.
Lensing by Alejandro Mejia is effective in capturing the story's faux intimacy and awkward comfort. This Las Cruces feels as comfortable as our familiar routines and habits that we keep because they make us feel safer and not so much because they actually work for us. Production design by Estefania Larrain immerses us in a changing, disintegrating world whether we're at Vicente's home, Carmen's comfortable yet constantly shifting bar, or other locales.
Joglar avoids unnecessary histrionics as Vicente, capturing the life of a father who seemingly wants to be a good father and yet seems to be unable to recognize that he's not doing so. In his worst moments, Joglar captures Vicente's willingness to blame others for his failures - even his daughters. There's only brief moments of true drama. Instead, Joglar captures a man so detached from himself that he can't possibly be attached to reality.
In the Summers enjoyed a strong indie festival run that included prizes at Sundance (Jury Prize, Dramatic and Best Directing Award), Deauville Film Festival (Grand Special Prize, Revelations Award), Miami Film Festival (Jordan Ressler First Feature Award), Athens International Film Festival (Best Director), and Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival (Frameline Completion Fund and Honorable Mention, First Feature). Recently released by indie distributor Music Box Films, In the Summers is a thoughtful, poignant drama that lingers as much in the heart and mind as the memories we never forget.
Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic
