The Reel Review
Two sisters navigate 20 formative years of their lives during summer visits with their loving but volatile father in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Puerto Rican rap singer/songwriter Residente, Sasha Calle, Lio Mehiel and Emma Ramos star in this family drama.
Writer/director Alessandra Lacorazza’s largely autobiographical film debut is both authentic and introspective. Her decision to break up the story into four chapters, each with different individuals playing the two siblings, was a risky one, but it pays off, as we see the emotional development build over two decades, culminating with Violeta’s transition into a man in the fourth chapter. Residente is impressive as the well-meaning but alcoholic screw up of a father, as is Ramos as his lifelong friend and bartender Carmen, who steps in as a surrogate parent to the kids as needed.
In the Summers is a movie about the unspoken defining moments in interpersonal relationships, both the good: the father teaching the daughters how to play billiards, sharing his love of star gazing – and the bad: a scared and angry Violeta fastening her seatbelt as her father drives drunk, an inevitable car accident, and the gradual decay of the house and backyard swimming pool, symbolic of the unraveling of the father-daughter bonds over time.
REEL FACTS
• In The Summers won the Grand Jury prize and Directing Award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
• Puerto Rican rapper Residente has won four Grammy Awards and 28 Latin Grammy Awards – more than any other Latin artist. Lin-Manuel Miranda is his cousin.
• Leslie Grace, who plays the father’s girlfriend Yenny later in the film, encouraged Sasha Calle to audition for the role of adult Eva. The two actresses worked on DC Comics projects – Grace as Batgirl in the now-shutdown franchise and Calle, as Supergirl in 2023’s The Flash.
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