IN THE SUMMERS (no distrib): The winner of the Jury Prize in the US Dramatic Competition is a somewhat prototypical Sundance drama. Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio’s semi-autobiographical story depicts four summers over about a decade spent by Eve and Violeta, children of divorce (played by various actors, culminating with Sasha Calle and Lio Mehiel) with their father Vicente (Rene Perez Joglar) in his New Mexico town. There isn’t a lot of exposition, but we glean that substance abuse is a part of Vicente’s life, and that he isn’t very much in touch with his children between summers. Things are awkward among them, but Vicente does what he can to ease the situation, including taking them to the local bar to teach them how to play pool. Over time, the stresses between them shift, as Vicente favors Violeta (who emerges as queer) for success in school, but then strains their relationship through his own reckless actions. He later remarries and has another child, changing the paradigm again. In its best moments, the elliptical In the Summers feels poetic (the production design is by Estefania Larrain and the cinematographer is Alejandro Mejia), but more often it seems sparse, slow and undeveloped, leaving strong performances by Joglar and the young performers (especially good is Allison Salinas as middle-school Eva) somewhat marooned. It’s a film that cultivates a lot of blanks.
STRESS POSITIONS (no distrib): Remember the lockdowns of 2020, when it seemed like all food was delivered and packages were feverishly wiped before being opened? Theda Hammel’s comedy returns to those faraway times, somehow managing to be messier than that era already was. In Brooklyn, Terry (John Early) has taken possession of his ex-husband’s brownstone, where he’s caring for his nephew Bahlul (Qaher Marhash), who’s been in an auto accident. Bahlul is a model, so Terry is trying to keep him from the clutches of his anarchic friends Karla (Hammel), Vanessa (Amy Zimmer), and Coco (Rebecca F. Wright). Hammel throws them all into a stew without much seasoning, so scenes have a tendency to plow on, as the conversation jumps from various identity politics (Karla is trans, and there’s a running gag about what constitutes the “Middle East”) to various forms of lust. The movie feels both effortful and unpolished, as though it had to be rushed to camera before the first draft of the script had been completed. Formal concepts arise (the voice-over swaps narrators at times, a central sequence takes place on July 4th) without much evident point. The format seems to promise a farce, but there are few laughs and no organized structure. In the midst of the pandemic, we had a run of films that attempted to be real-time chronicles of the crisis by taking place on Zoom, or trapping a few actors (sometimes real-life couples and families to minimize risk) in a single location. Those projects haven’t stood the test of time, but at least there was a reason they were so unconsidered and off-the-cuff. Four years later, we should expect more from sagas of that moment, but Stress Positions has the depth of a tweet.
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