The adolescent genre has given us great comedies such as ‘Bad Girls’ or ‘Superbad’, in which through humor they tell us about that moment of change in which we go from adolescence to maturity. ‘My best summer’ is a funny dramedy about adolescence and sexual awakening and you have it on Amazon Prime Video.
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Summer of 2003
“Isn’t it funny how we never remember much about summer? It’s like it’s a general sequence of happy moments. Sensations that remain like when your hands are sticky from ice cream. Even, sometimes, the memories intermingle with each other.” This is how ‘My best summer’ (‘Summer ’03’), the debut feature written and directed by Rebecca Gleason (although she already had experience in series like ‘Community’) begins.
The story introduces us to Jamie, a 16-year-old teenager who is facing a family crisis: his grandmother is dying and before leaving this world he decides to confess to all the members of his family what he really thinks of them. The unusual confession he leaves Jamie will send his family reeling and lead to your summer becomes a roller coaster of emotions.
From the beginning, the film advances its intentions with that first almost dreamlike sequence of fleeting moments. As Jamie suggests, the story synthesizes the essence of a teenage summerwhere funny, dramatic things will happen, tedious moments that we will forget in the future and other very specific ones in which time seems to stand still.
Precisely the movie handles several shades at once without overflowing anywhere: Like any teenager, Jamie will experience sad moments and happy moments, she will make mistakes and her family will not be as perfect as she hopes but, in the end, all of this will help her to be one step closer to knowing who she is.
Ice cream and self-discovery
It is also surprising how the film integrates the theme of discovery of sexuality. Although it starts as a joke (Grandma’s confession is a sensational comedy gag), its development is quite interesting, through a light tone and it is presented without being overly dramatized: simply, a normal thing in the life of any Teen.
Joey King (‘Bullet Train’) is great as Jamie, building a character with its fair doses of curiosity and mischief, without falling into the caricature of the typical cynical edge. accompany you andrea savage Y paul scheer like their parents, june squibb like grandma and Jack Kilmer as the “hot priest” of the show.
Although as a whole it is a refreshing and always entertaining mixture, the film pricks a little towards the end. The climax of the story seems much weaker, when it was the perfect occasion to let your hair down and make the most of your full dramatic and comedic potential. The final scene fails to have the emotional impact that was expected of it and remains little more than curious.
‘My best summer’ is a funny coming of age that evokes the sensations of those teenage summers, through a delirious comedy that does not give up developing the dramatic conflict of the character. Despite the fact that his outcome does not reach all its possibilities, it is a refreshing proposal very well defended by Joey King.