Directed By Jillian Bell

Starring – Chloe Fineman, Sam Morelos, Matt Cornett

The Plot – Abby (Morelos) seeks to impress her crush by learning a specific sexual position, enlisting a stripper’s (Fineman) help. However, she realizes true self-discovery and lasting friendship are more valuable.

Rated R for adult language, drug use and sexualized content

Summer of 69 | Official Trailer | Hulu

POSTIVES

Although “Summer of 69” follows the blazed trail of most interchangeable coming-of-age narratives, it’s nevertheless an entertaining and surprisingly genuine directorial debut for Jillian Bell, whose transition from in front of the screen to behind it helps unearth the raunchy comedies of the 90’s that so many of its aged audience grew up on. In terms of comedy, the script, also from Bell and co-writers Jules Byrne and Liz Nico, does pack a variety of effective laughs in everything from sight gags to punchy caustic wit that relishes every inch of its necessary R-rating, but also garners with it an expressive avenue for Bell to inflict some introspective personality to the engagement, with the entirety of the engagement coming from Abby’s perspective, as she weaves through the humbling humility of teenage sexuality, albeit even with an experienced veteran like Fineman’s Santa Monica constantly feeding into her fish-out-of-water reality. As expected, the film does feature overhead narration from Morelos that helps tap into the escapism and thought process of our protagonist, but it’s especially Bell’s atmospheric song selections, entrancing visuals, and exaggerated interactions among her characters during fantasy sequences that really allows the film to lose itself in the disparaging depths of lovelorn daydreamers, helping to conjure not only an overwhelming vulnerability for Abby that effortlessly appraises empathetic value towards her character, but also some truly memorable sequences that allows this straight-to-streaming property to stand out with the kind of theatrical appeal that naturally inspires good times to be had with these characters. On that aspect, the dynamic between Abby and Santa Monica does elicit a fascinatingly mirrored coming-of-age journey for each of them for uniquely varying reasons, but it also brings with it an underlining element of sincerity that I found refreshingly complimentary for the raunchy material, opening each of them up to the evolutions of their characters that subconsciously tap into the evidential loneliness of each of them being outcasts among their peers. When the movie first begins, I didn’t think that I would be able to spend 95 minutes alongside them because of how abrasive their respective personalities were, but as the film transpires, the chemistry between Fineman and Morelos, as well as the mutual confronting of fears that enacts each character to proceed outside of their intended comfort zones, helps to cement an endearing presence to the other in ways that transpires seamlessly into bonding friendship, in turn earning every ounce of the aforementioned sentimentality in the tonal shift that abridges your typical third act distancing with foundation-building memories of the wildest variety. The characters also come to life with the level of energy and charisma that Fineman and Morelos invest in their respective portrayals, with the former taking her biggest cinematic leap forward from TV’s Saturday Night Live, while the latter revels in the awkwardness of adolescence that frequently get the better of her character. Fineman’s undeterred confidence to both sexuality and unapologetically sobering insights definitely help to see her in a uniquely compelling light that you’re not always afforded with sketch comedy, and with Bell’s brand of comedy working particularly well to the kind of deprecating humor that Chloe times so precisely in her caustically dry deliveries, gifts her the perfect kind of opportunity to truly make the character her own, especially during those initial engagements with Abby, which entail such a larger-than-life emphasis towards the influence of her character. As for Sam Morelos, this is only the second acting role that she has attained in a feature length film, however her tepidly uncomfortable demeanor and imaginative personality far transcends the limitations that typically come from a lack of opportunistic experience, helping to not only enact a discernable soul and consciousness to Abby’s journey that feels familiar to everyone who has lived with unrequited love, but also an openness to humility that steers so many of the punchlines of the gags on her humbled shoulders, allowing her to go blow for blow with an experienced comedic heavyweight like Fineman, even as the script consistently laughs at her, instead of with her. Lastly, while I had some issues with the execution of the storytelling, the material’s message towards self-confidence and remaining true to yourself is one that not only works perfectly well within the extent of this narrative, but also a fitting guidance to youthful audiences watching the film, who find themselves in similar-but-simplistic variations of these conflicts. Despite the film’s main objective undoubtedly being humorous entertainment, it does pack with it a profoundness for self-reflection that constantly proves that it’s heart to be in the right place, proving itself worthy of the coming-of-age banner, in that it wields unsuspecting knowledge that eventually sneaks up on you in the most rewarding kind of ways.

NEGATIVES

There’s plenty to be entertained and delighted by with “Summer of 69”, but it isn’t without blemishes, particularly in the depths of its inconsistently uneven screenplay, which isn’t able to evade predictability towards the direction of its journey. Aside from tastefully enacting familiar scenes and moments from previous coming-of-age stories, which are harmless in their intention, the telegraphing of these phonily materializing conflicts, the likes of which would take ten minutes of thinking to resolve, leave the film with very little speculation about the ways that they will play out, leaving this film unable to evade the single biggest measurement made towards distancing itself from other similarly structured films that are lumped together. It’s not to say that the film isn’t without surprises, especially once some secondary characters get involved into the fray, during the third act, just that its biggest subplots come with an abundance of transparency that had me accurately predicting the resolutions of this movie, as early as the film’s ten minute mark, with little in the way of audaciously daring development towards its characters that could’ve helped eluding the conventionalism that unfortunately comes to nearly define it. In addition to this, I previously used the word “Uneven” to describe the summarization of the engagement, and that’s because there’s a point midway through the movie where it feels like the film’s focus shifts from Abby to Santa Monica, and while Fineman does accurately get top billing here, it feels like more development could be paid to the interactions between Abby and her crush, Max, especially in that it feels like the least investing arc of the entire engagement, as a result of the leading lad feeling so one-dimensionally confined to what the movie asks of him. For my money, more time should’ve been spent towards building the dynamic between them, in order to showcase Abby’s evolving confidence alongside her various failures at expressing her feelings for him, but what we’re ultimately left with is a rushed and abridged version to what should feel like a monumental conflict for her, with no earned chemistry between them to eventually ignite that spark. Finally, while most of the performances please in this stacked ensemble that also features Natalie Morales, Nicole Byer, and Bell herself stepping back in front of the lens to play a sex toy salesperson, the surprising disappointment stemming from Charlie Day’s rambunctiously annoying antagonist makes his character feel plucked from an entirely different movie all together, especially as a result of the overwhelmingly tedious energy that we get from his character in what should be these standardly subdued interactions. This is obviously normal for Day, who has built a career off of rambling ever-increasingly in volume with his various portrayals, but here the cameo merely amounts to the kind of increasing distraction that takes away from the investment within the storytelling, showcasing not only Charlie’s least appealing work to date, but also everything that I thought his role in 2018’s “Hotel Artemis” was going to be, made worse here by the fact that he can’t supplant any comedic timing to the genre that he works best in.

OVERALL
“Summer of 69” is a more than worthy addition not only to the Hulu library of content, but also the coming-of-age subgenre that in recent years has been proving that everything old is new once more in adolescent cinema. While the inconsistent script threatens to spoil the summer, the radiant chemistry between Chloe Fineman and Sam Morelos, as well as meticulous balance of raunchy humor and profound messaging, keep the party going, amounting to a dazzling debut in the director’s chair for Jillian Bell that inspires an unlikely friendship between two people at two distinctly different crossroads in their respective lives.

My Grade: 7.7 or B