Jillian Bell’s Feature Directorial Debut
*Spoilers Ahead*
American pop culture is chock-a-block with coming-of-age teen comedy movies, with the grand queen undoubtedly being crowned upon Mean Girls, starring Lindsay Lohan and the consistently incredible Rachel McAdams.
Even as a foreigner (South African born) and immigrating to America, I absolutely cannot deny the comfort and fun of kicking back to relax enjoying a good All-American teen comedy flick, despite my only attending high school in this country for a couple years. This genre of film is special because it taps into Universal themes of youth, rebellion, identity, and social awkwardness while wrapping them in humor that appears potently to both teens and nostalgic adults. These movies often idealize (or inflate) versions of high-school life: wild parties, underdog triumphs, and social chaos. Things that are certainly way more fun and dramatic than the reality of repetitive classes and exams.
Summer of 69 certainly does continue this adorably spicy trend with some endearing high school laughs… but it also undoubtedly turns up the dial on the sexual innuendoes strewn across the script, to the point where I would even rate this movie for ages 18 and up, owing to said continuous and overt sexual references.
Right out the gate, for example, is the title Summer of 69 which leads you to think that the movie could be about the Bryan Adams song with the same title, or possibly a period piece set in the summer of 1969. Both of these turned out to be incorrect, and the answer is that it is a pun on the sexual position 69 and this movie fully penetrates on the sexual innuendos to do with that, to use another intentional pun.
Summer of 69 is an American comedy directed by Jillian Bell (most known for her performance in Brittany Runs a Marathon in 2019) and written by Liz Niko, Jules Byrne and Bell herself. It stars the gorgeous Chloe Fineman (Saturday Night Live), the outrageous Charlie Day (It’s always sunny in Philadelphia) and Matt Cornett (High School Musical).
If I had to find a critique of the film, it’s that I noticed a fair amount of “male-bashing”, with all the men in the film either being idiots or committing ominous actions. Take Charlie Day’s character, who is the villain trying to steal the strip-club and enslave all who work there. He plays the typical rich white chauvinistic chump with too much jewelry and even more gross factor. It was truly only the teenage heartthrob of the film played by Matt Cornett, who didn’t descend into disgrace. In fact I was surprised he turned out to be a decent kid after all and didn’t have the typical twist, and it was refreshing that he did not turn out to be the story’s chief idiot or villain.
At the live Q&A after the film at SXSW Austin last week, Bell mentioned how she and Sam Morelos worked a lot on Sam’s actions/expressions/blocking to try and show her existential character arc as the film endured. In praise, I think Jillian Bell did a really good job with this challenging physical and behavioral coming-of-age process that our protagonist went through. This needed to land for the film to be successful. I was waiting for her thick bushy hair to be given a sexy makeover by the end of the third act (which sadly never came), but it was joyful watching her inner confidence and the nervous right hand fidget slowly melt away as her genuine smile and confident strut began to take shape.
All credit to Jillian Bell for this, her feature directorial debut. She is a really talented filmmaker and I am excited to see what’s next from her directing.