As the author reveals in Winter Spring Summer or Fall, ‘It is a story of two persons who meet and fall in love over the span of four days in a year.’
When it comes to romantic drama films like Tiffany Paulsen’s Winter Spring Summer or Fall, such romantic dramas don’t just come about. In terms of love stories, they are non-offensive and simple, yet not very dangerous. They usually seek to either make one feel at home or provide the audience with a fantastical perspective that shows what relationships on screen should look like. Many of these films already dominate the release schedule for the year 2024, with names such as The Idea of You, Music, The Greatest Hits, and Players among others. Of note: Each of those four titles belongs to streamers.
This may be an omen of what Winter Spring Summer or Fall might look like and that is even before adding that the drama in question is helmed by the self-proclaimed queen of Netflix Jenna Ortega, which makes it worse. Ortega plays Remi who most people would be closer to lab incubation rather than actual characters. Remi is a recent Google alum who has not been out once and is conflicted between Harvard and Columbia for her college choices, which are somewhat safe. On a train to visit the other Ivy Flynn for a tour band tour, she bumps into Barnes Hayworth (Percy Hynes White, Ortega’s co-star on Wednesday); Barnes’s name came from AI software that pretended to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s library.
In college, we expect brilliance but he just brings dismay, doesn’t want to finish school, and is a man with quite a few struggles.
There is not any rush towards an end to the will they won’t they affair that Ortega and Jay White have constructed over a few years as onscreen lovers for some reason. As terrible as it sounds, this New Jersey Transit meet-cute starts because Barnes knows Remi because his friend PJ Elias Kacavas lives near Remi’s family. In an unsuccessful attempt to warm up to her intimidating persona, Barnes sends Remi a mix tape made up of Talking Heads’ songs like 18-year-olds do. Remi improves ever so slightly when Barnes tells her to get on the express train, instead of the local one, and a friendship begins. But to her, it’s just some cute guy from the train and a lot of her ‘important things’ will not be changed to accommodate this ‘cute guy’. Well, cannot have this.
They may love it in the film, but they can sure love it out there on the beach as well. As for what the film synopsis describes as ‘four days’ which more accurately would be called four seasons, this duo falls in love. Shaved heads and security teeth marks don’t help, although still looking like self-proclaimed teenagers in their barely 20s, Byrne and Buffalo Tom portray two teenage romantics who pine helplessly in each other’s arms while fantasizing about turtle conservation in Costa Rica, ‘Saving Turtles in Cosa Rica’ as good as it sounds, yes, it is pathetic. On the other hand Winters Summer Spring or Fall hardly ever comes across at all, let alone being believable or natural. The script, written by one Dan Schoffer who has done Rizzoli & Isles, is uninspired and unimaginative with the supporting cast of father Adam Rodriguez and mother Marisol Nichols who are easily forgettable characters which is a shame since they came very close to being nameless.
Right place, wrong time. Sounds familiar? Before Richard Linklater however, Paulsen and Schoffers time narrative added nothing new, even the basic characteristics that the said masterpieces acquired, The Before Trilogy did not become. It is not that one should avoid the influences for their own original film is completely encouraged however as the references become the overriding structure of the work yet are unable to replicate all the things that their better film has plenty of, the asset is not delivered.
Ortega and Hynes White should not be expected to be like Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke as it is the creators of Winter Spring Summer or Fall who are solely to be blamed for rolling Sunrise, Sunset, and Midnight into a single Weepy Y.A or the creators of WSSF should not be blamed at all.
WSSF has every chance of being the worst and the unlikeliest title to be awarded at a fly event this year however it is no surprise fell into the censorship trap as the question arises in a very infant way does romance degeneracies about wild one tiller and genre balancing cater to romance? What about the audience from Ortega’s body of work which is relatively untouched; will they be able to scratch these subscribers once the movie comes out? A movie that is almost painfully dull and more for fan edits rather than what is expected to come out of the company. What one should expect is not what WSSS reveals in its conclusion for will force us to keep looking the weekends through for something like a countdown bridge of shots from any dunking back cocktails of twills is what they anticipated.
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