Summering

Summering provides the perfect territory for whoever wants to feel nostalgic about childhood, or just wants to enjoy spending time with kids trading clever banter. But the journey gets a little less sweet once you realize that the movie lets go of basic logic just so its main characters can have a bit of fun and bring their journey full circle.

Key to the film’s appeal is the way that the friendship between the four girls, Dina, Lola, Daisy (Lisa Barnett), and Mari (Eden Grace Redfield), is persuasively brought to life.

Summering works better as a mood than it does a movie, succeeding in channeling a certain feeling of transition despite ambling, or occasionally stumbling though more traditional kids-flicks narrative beats.

Nostalgia may be the strongest emotion engendered by this breeze-blown dandelion seed of a film, which nods to the bittersweet complexities of growing up and confronting adulthood, but never gets as far as fully dramatizing them.

Had [Ponsoldt] truly trusted his young performers and crafted the script accordingly, Summering could have been something special. Instead he’s made a film as unfocused and forgettable as a rainy late-summer afternoon. These characters deserve better.

The nostalgia of Ponsoldt's film is curdled and rotten underneath its summery sheen.

Summering is a slow and ultimately boring mystery that does little to portray youth in a meaningful way.