Bummer Summer (2010)
Written and Directed by Zach Weintraub
Photography by Nandan Rao
Cast: Mackinley Robinson, Zach Weintraub, Julia McAlee
B/W, U.S.A, 2010
Few movie directors can be proud of achieving realism and artistic perfection. Zach Weintraub does this in his first feature. Shot on a ridicule budget and using a single DSLR camera that is perfectly balanced by Nandan Rao’s perfect black and white photography and using pretty much no written dialogue, Bummer Summer is a delicate surprise, one that uses it’s handicap to produce a beautiful cinematic experience while telling a simple story that reflects nowadays youth much more than any other stylized or big budget film.
This is the story of two brothers during the big summer vacations, in a town where nothing much is happening. There are no adults in the film. Isaac is the younger brother and happy with his girlfriend. His brother Ben returns home after graduation and the two go out for a folk concert where the singer catches Isaac’s attention. She’s an ex-girlfriend of his brother, Lila, and the meeting of the two former lovers might spark a little flame. They plan on a road trip and invite Isaac to come but he feels obligated to stay with his girlfriend. But of course that he changes his mind, caught in both a spell of attraction and idea of getting away from the boredom. He breaks up with his girl and meets the two, embarking in a road trip to see the world’s largest maze.
Simply, Bummer Summer can be played as a road trip film, but it’s quite more complex than that, since the relationships between the older and younger brothers change during its course, the apathy of a long boring summer portrayed in the simple sighs of being young and having everything and nothing to do.
Instead of just filming space and time, like most realist features that wait for the perfect moment to be caught, Weintraub and Rao create the situations that make the story by playing the movie like they’re playing their lives. Although this is not necessarily felt in the film, as in a stylized documentary – it’s the complete oposite, Bummer Summer captures the eternal dirty innocence of youth as a new-retro style of making films: using the inexistent production and gear to its advantage.
It’s a difficult task to achieve this level of naive perfection, naive in a sense that there are no artifices here, even if the photography is so breathtakingly gorgeous. The soft love triangle plays clumsily in the two brother’s cluelessness, their motivations are uncertain yet they know what they seek: an escape. In this sense, Lila is the ticket they need, she plays her game unknowingly and detaches herself from any feelings.
But the two brothers aren’t sure either. They make no advances nor they exact their feelings, if there are any, there are no conflicts besides the utmost problem that makes the youngsters embark on a journey to the unknown: any place is better than home.
This film was screened off-competition on IndieLisboa’s 2011 edition. There are no DVD versions but you can check the film’s website and facebook page to catch up and make inquiries. But do inquire, this is a hidden gem that, with the right amount of praise, will become a cult favourite. Beautiful!
Screens courtesy of Bummer Summer’s facebook page
