
Meant for a younger audience, N.B. Weiss works on presenting the documentary “In the Summers” in a manner that would appeal to the fans of the melodrama movie genre or its essence. While doing so the author also makes sure to underline it, that the film should not be looked at solely from the romantic or melodramatic side rather it offers multiple possibilities to reflect upon.
Within Lacorazza’s first feature, she muses: “The experience of growing up in immigrant families and realizing you are a foreigner in a foreign country and in the one you immigrated to is complicated. You feel like your childhood is stolen and shaped by expectations of the emigration essay for such people have made the choice to leave their homelands full of expectations desperately.
Amidst all this drama between the characters and culture Lacorazza further portrays conflict within the family. She narrates how two sisters struggle and attract the attention of their father. Since they constantly seek approval for nothing is ever strong enough
Playing in an exceptionally understated and aggressive debut, the Puerto Rican rapper René “Residente” Pérez Joglar as Vicente is a rather complex character in the lives of his daughters Violeta (Dreya Renae Castillo) and Eva (Luciana Quinonez) from their early years. Their mother is no longer with him as they are divorced and lives in California, so he has moved back to the place where he spent his childhood, which is no more as shown by cinematographer Alejandro Mejía who according to his timeframe depicts the warm memories, but later transitions to show a place full of chaos riffraff that he gets into and that we are supposed to believe was the cause of marriage being wrecked.
However, this time when Vicente drove his daughters to the mother’s house which he also owns, he had the best of moods in the backyard swimming pool or hanging out at the billiards table in the local pub and even talking about galaxies, the man was entertaining and warm. One would even have the impression that he was quite smart and full of interesting views and ideas, or at least the way he sees things, that he wanted to pass on to his children, who were happy to absorb them. Even from this first piece’s story, even Old Vicente managed to keep his low profile, while witnessing such signs as how he adored cigarettes or how alcohol became part of his life.
However, when he takes his daughters home and begins reckless driving while joking around, it is a surprise to him, a surprise as to what we see: Violeta, unbuckled and frightened in the back seat, who understands now clearly that there’s no point in trusting Vicente to take them home safely as he nearly loses control of the vehicle. More to herself than to anyone else, the young girl appears to be repeating to herself, “That would not happen to me again.”
However, small as it may be, it is yet an extremely significant one among many that first summer and one that will have far-reaching implications in the manner in which and the self-image that Vicente’s daughters construct around his absence and attendance, his engagement and neglect, his generational storm. The concern of Lacorazza is not about violent encounters of parents and children, although a few moments portraying the severe tension between Vicente and Violeta that leads them to violence are shown to effective measures, rather, she is concerned with moments in time that are delicate snapshots: action but tension, afection but frustration, and most importantly character interaction that is seemingly always in motion striving towards an ideal.
However, each of the chapters is followed in sequence by still life compositions including Dutch Vanitas, framed family pictures on the altars, and pensive toms that, despite the vivid Latin music playing in the background, tell us slowly but certainly how time erodes whatever good intentions we may have. The next time the children see their father, they have changed Eva (portrayed by now Allison Salinas) has matured into a young lady who is willing to do anything to get her father’s affection, Violeta (Kimaya Thais Limón) has become an older sister who is protective since she has been in this mess longer. Violeta, who has cut her hair short now’s the cutest when she meets the local bartender Carmen (Emma Ramos) a childhood friend of the father’s and is usually there for the girls when required since she is already dating Camila (Gabriella Elizabeth Surodjawan), who, occasionally, his father tutors for physics. And as for Eva, Vicente’s words, “She looks just like her mother,” are so out of place as she simply wants him to regard her as someone who is self-sufficient, without his assistance.
As for Vicente, he has issues with what Violeta now sees for what it is, which is alcoholism, and displays violent behavior that only drives her away even more when she is spreading her wings and is in the phase of developing her identity as a queer that incorporates much more power than what Vicente is ready to handle.
That summer, Vicente finds himself squatting in the ruins of his life with his former cherished home gone to become rotten and the once clean pool collapsed by mud and debris and for the first time finds the Las Cruces mesa feeling dank and humid as well. Because their father went out in search of a job one day and forgot them, Violeta and Eva are left to poke a decomposing squirrel carcass under a highway overpass.
The confrontational visit goes wrong because Vicente is the true cause of the dramatic incident, and when Eva goes out in the summer for the second time, she sees her father’s new wife Leslie Grace along with their newborn. Such is Vicente’s anger towards Violeta remaining behind in California, that, in his mind, Eva is a second place. She has a long time of solitude ahead. At the pub, Carmen sees Andrea beat her father again and how Eva’s ambitions to impress him by practicing billiards distract him from noticing that beating him is reverse effective when he is confronted with his daughter. The skirt stage of teenage Eva, who plays crossbody in a striking scene from “In the Summers,” owes it to Salinas as she is staring throughout the segment in anticipation of his blandishments, and mourns when he abandons her.
Now older, Violeta (Lío Mehiel) and Eva (Sasha Calle) are said to visit Las Cruces for the first time in years to honor their father and the patriarchal bonds that once existed have grown faint, weaker and less substantial than their marriage.
Violeta, over time, has transitioned, is set to commence her graduate school come fall. Eva, now heavy with emotions and a chain smoker hiding her face with dark sunglasses has her own demons – some from last summer, others not which have caused a disconnect that Vicente can barely begin to bridge. Lacorazza’s tenderness in the narration comes from the trauma and pain Barlow and him as a father began and ended with forging these boundaries, revealing layers of richness that encompass it drawing from anger, unresolved feelings in taken for granted, and seeping expectancy. And without spelling out the vast emptiness left by lack of relativity, Lacorazza outlines the most important detail all important diatribes and warm embraces are left behind, no harmony to be restored, only memories of faint sensations on the body which remind of the pain and as always remembering where the edges are.
In contrast to this, Mehiel and Calle never deviate from their interpretation of combinations of other subtle centers of the fabric that binds all characters and the clutter that these mighty passions bring with them. Yet, it is precisely this sense of expansion that imbues the emotion of “In the Summers” with an inexplicable force, because they were the seniors, who were adored by their talents and brought the necessary warmness within the invasive plot. Unbelievably, they manage to convey the feeling of the father’s and daughter’s relationship rupturing before the viewer’s eyes.
Therefore, the most heartbreaking performance of all has to be that of Joglar, who manages to present from the full measure of the man a father who adores his daughters and is protective of them but lets his anger overcome him at the critical juncture. “Well, you guys did okay without me,” he declares at a late moment, towards the end of the film – a statement of fact and failure, which is all the more hurtful because it is said so plainly.
“In the Summers” won both the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Directing Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film, unlike any other, has a great sense of place. Over several of her chapters, there is a focus on appreciating La Cruces with twinkling nights full of promise, and rugged mountain scenery above to suggest the meandering journeys of the characters, adult Violeta and Eva as they cross beautiful sand dunes. Time feels elastic as they travel with Vicente, the snow-white dunes beneath them giving them breathless beauty as they tend to now-teenager Natalia (Indigo Montez) who seems to be in her father’s care. And without a hint of this being her first time Varicella makes this sting clear. She has lived this story or at least a part of it. But you have to move forward with who you were, where you’ve been, what you’ve experienced, and everything will flow.
For more movies like In the Summers visit 123movies