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‘In the Summers’ Review: Moving Debut Spans the Foundational Years of a Parent-Child Relationship
Urban music star René Pérez Joglar (aka Residente) impresses as a troubled father in this New Mexico-set portrait of complicated familial bonds.
A backyard swimming pool tells part of the story in Colombian American writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio ’s “ In the Summers.” As it goes from refreshing site of joyful congregation to an ignored eyesore in mounting disrepair, the recreational amenity establishes itself as a potently grave motif for the passage of time in this unsentimental, and yet immensely affecting debut feature about a complicated parent-children relationship. Taking on his first substantial film performance (after making a cameo in 2009’s “Old Dogs”), Pérez Joglar, who has directed plenty of his own music videos, nails each of Vicente’s transitions with grounded ardor, from a seemingly over-confident man trying to improve himself, to the erratic outbursts that beget dangerous episodes of outright neglect, and eventually the fragility of someone coming to terms with the irreparable consequences of their shortcomings. The marvelous pair of actors that portray the sisters as adults in the final part, Sasha Calle ( of “The Flash”) as Eva and Lio Mehiel (the lead in Sundance 2023’s “Mutt”) playing Violeta, bring it home with two thoughtfully pained performances.
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