Winner of Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and Directing Award, In the Summers, now has the North American theatrical release of queer Colombian American writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza’s debut feature, semi-autobiographical family drama. In the Summers is an intimate coming-of-age story that delves into the complex father-daughter relationships and generational divides within the Latinx community in the American Southwest.
The film stars Grammy-winning Puerto Rican rapper and activist René “Residente” Pérez Joglar as Vicente, the loving yet unpredictable father of Violeta (Lío Mehiel, Mutt) and Eva (Sasha Calle). The sisters, who live with their mother in California, travel to New Mexico each summer to visit Vicente. Set throughout four of these formative summers, this moving drama follows Violeta and Eva from adolescence to adulthood as they understand and appreciate their father, recognizing that his flaws and limitations are inseparable from his passion and tenderness.
Pérez Joglar is a well-known musician and has been featured in many music videos. His performance is outstanding as a father who loves his daughters but has flaws in his parenting skills. He portrays a father who does not have limits in his drinking and drug use while he has his daughters over the summer visits. He also has ways of praising one daughter more than the other and often says things that come across as belittling the efforts of the other. Things that have happened on various trips to the father’s home certainly look like somebody would have called Child Protective Services, but this is not shown in this story. The story captures what the father did, what the girls experienced, and how it ultimately impacts their lives. The young actresses that portray Vicente’s daughters at different ages are excellent, and the trio acts well as a family unit.
In this powerful and deeply personal directorial debut, Alessandra Lacorazza offers a nuanced reflection on young people questioning their place within their families and communities and their intersecting identities as women, trans youth, and second-generation immigrants.
With Lacorazza’s skilled direction, impressive performances, and the beautiful cinematography of Alejandro Mejía, the film becomes a tender and poignant emotional capsule of growing up within a fragmented immigrant family.
Cast: Rene Perez Joglar, Sasha Calle, Lío Mehiel, Sharlene Cruz, Leslie Grace, Emma Ramos, Kimay Thais, Allison Salinas, Dreya Castillo, Luciana Quiñonez.
About: Over the years, their father’s lovers come and go, his drinking increases and the search for a true sense of home remains elusive. Violeta and Eva seek refuge in each other as they forge their own paths, questioning their gender and sexuality, and illustrating the profound impact that our formative memories have on the rest of our lives.
The film’s North American theatrical release was Friday, September 20, in New York City and Los Angeles. On Friday, September 27, it will open in Austin, TX, at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar.
95 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. For a list of additional theaters that offer the film as of September 27, 2024, visit https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/in-the-summers/
Source: Sundance, aGLIFF, IMDb, A Music Box Films release.