Review: Bummer Summer (2010)

[Steve Rhodes]

BUMMER SUMMER
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2010 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  * 1/2

This year's Cinequest film festival has been one of the most consistent I've 
attended in the fourteen years I've been covering the festival.  And, by 
consistent, I mean consistently good.  I'm known as kind of a tough grader 
when it comes to films, recommending far fewer than most critics.

It might seem strange to start this review of BUMMER SUMMER, a film I did 
not like, with the above accolade for this year's Cinequest, but BUMMER 
SUMMER, which makes its premier at Cinequest, reminds me of the corollary of 
my initial thesis.  While I could not recommend BUMMER SUMMER, it proved to 
be a very interesting failure.

Much of what I didn't care for in the movie spoke to the cast and crew's 
promising potential for their future.  Their talents were in evidence, even 
if this, the first movie I suspect for most them, was only very sporadically 
enjoyable for me.

As the very minimal story unfolded -- the sparse dialog is almost totally ad 
lib -- I found myself bored by the story, so my mind wandered onto other 
aspects of the filmmaking.  What is most striking about the movie is its 
appearance.  Filmed with a digital SLR still camera that has a video option, 
the cinematographer shot it in black and white.  Almost every shot is 
composed, on purpose, with a very shallow depth of field, so that most of 
the scene is out-of-focus.  The resulting images take on a blurry, painterly 
appearance, and, since so little of any given frame is in focus, the 
director quite effectively draws your eyes to the part he wants to you 
concentrate on.

BUMMER SUMMER, written and directed by Zach Weintrau, is cast mainly with 
friends of his from a film school from which they recently graduated.  The 
story is a modest love triangle among Isaac (Mackinley Robinson), Lila 
(Julia McAlee) and Isaac's older brother Ben (Zach Weintraub).  The acting 
is all quite natural, albeit never particularly compelling.

Filled with the meaningless small talk that older teens unsure of themselves 
frequently engage in to pass the time, the movie ambles along.  Structured 
somewhat as a road trip to find a big hedge maze, the movie had few scenes 
that I found memorable.  The one that did work for me is a cute little 
interchange between Lila and Ben, in which she tells him that she has enough 
experience now to know when casual sex works and when it doesn't.  Of 
course, the wise and experienced Lila then decrees that casual sex with him 
now wouldn't work.

Of all of the actors, McAlee, who plays Lila, shows the most promise.  I 
think they would all have benefited, however, from tighter control and a 
carefully written and followed script.

BUMMER SUMMER runs 1:19.

The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival 
(www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 23 through March 7, 2010.

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