A coming-of-age story that invokes familiar themes of innocence and experience, "The Last Summer" has moments of bracing authenticity dangling from a weak narrative frame. Without some tightening and a score overhaul, pic will be relegated to fest rounds.
A coming-of-age story that invokes familiar themes of innocence and experience, “The Last Summer” has moments of bracing authenticity dangling from a weak narrative frame. Without some tightening and a score overhaul, pic will be relegated to fest rounds.
That said, tyro helmer Jonathan Landau has an eye for images and an ear for pre-adolescent conversation. It’s 1981, and 11-year-old Joel is dealing with his mother’s accidental death, his father’s self-imposed isolation and his own nascent sexuality. Joel (played with great naturalism by Corey Jackson) vacillates between moments of self-confidence and self-doubt, depending on his luck with girls or his performance at a school swim meet. Landau shoots some sequences effectively, often using inspired camera angles. But he transitions awkwardly between scenes, rendering the film more a collection of vignettes than a forceful, dramatic portrait with a clear through-line or well-delineated conflict. And the score (by Christopher Wright) too often calls attention to itself rather than simply abetting the narrative. Verena O’Connor’s costume design, however, is right on the money: She’s revived the ubiquitous Lacoste shirts, awkward short shorts and knee-high socks that most of us would like to forget.
The Last Summer
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