Review of Hot Summer Nights (2018) by Jon D — 29 Jul 2018

Hot Summer Nights has a ton going for it. It is straight up beautiful to look at; the cinematography is to die for. One scene in particular that takes place at a scene has some breathtaking shots that I would like framed. It's also got an extremely talented cast, with indie darlings Tim Chalamet and Maika Monroe delivering solid performances, as does newcomer (to me) Alex Roe. Finally, the distributor, A24, generally does wonders for the films it producers. Something happened here, though, that just ultimately made it fall flat on its face. It's not emotionally resonant, it's not original, it's not very memorable...in short it just isn't very compelling to sit through. It's got a bit of a tonal problem, being a huge bummer, with more serious scenes taking on a dread that don't play well against the lighthearted stuff. For a master class in that type of filmmaking, rewatch Boogie Nights, you'll see what I mean. But here, it just makes it feel dour, especially considering the weirdly low stakes of the story.

Oh, I forgot to mention - the soundtrack sounds extremely expensive, so. That's impressive, and does add quite a bit to the proceedings, although they aren't actually woven into the plot or scenes which they occupy. As hard as the soundtrack and vaporwave title cards try, they can't do anything to stop this film being fucking miserable to watch toward the second half, with its idiot greedy jerk characters compounding on their mistakes for no reason, time after time while you fear their bodily harm.