‘In the Summers’ Review: Moving Debut Spans the Foundational Years of a Parent-Child Relationship
variety.comCarlos Aguilar 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.
Told in four elliptical segments, it spans roughly two decades. Grammy-winning, Puerto Rican urban music hitmaker René Pérez Joglar (better known by his stage name Residente), part of the now defunct duo Calle 13, stars as Vicente.
The nonchalant dad lives alone in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a sleepy desert town with a predominantly Latino population. With a cigarette over his ear and much eagerness, he picks up his daughters Violeta and Eva (played as children by Dreya Castillo and Luciana Elisa Quinonez), in from California for summer vacation, from the minuscule local airport.
The first chapter is built from seemingly inconsequential moments that ultimately serve as the foundation for the father’s image in his daughters’ eyes, which will slowly decay as the years move forward in the narrative.
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