Though he has been appearing in films here and there for a few years now, his more recent turns in films such as Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird have cemented Timothée Chalamet as the new critical darling in independent cinema. It’s not hard to understand why. Not only does he have a good look to him, but he has the acting chops to measure up to it. And it’s fascinating to see someone of his age and stature keep sticking to mostly under-the-radar films as opposed to jumping on the biggest tentpole his agent can manage to snag.
Granted, that commitment to the indie scene doesn’t quite apply to his latest film, Hot Summer Nights, which was actually shot well before Call Me By Your Name was even released, but you catch my drift.
Hot Summer Nights is the debut from writer/director, Elijah Bynum, and it follows the exploits of Daniel (Timothée Chalamet), a troubled and awkward teen who is sent to live with his aunt for the summer in Cape Cod. Once there, he winds up dealing drugs with his new friend, Hunter (Alex Roe), while also falling for Hunter’s estranged sister, McKayla (Maika Monroe). What proceeds is a down and dirty coming-of-age tale of sex, drugs, and angst set in the scorching summer of 1991.
The film is ultimately a bit of a mixed bag, but I think it has enough going for it that I ended up fairly compelled by it. If you took a look at the synopsis and thought of a basic story out of the details I gave you, chances are you’d be pretty close to what actually happens in the movie. It’s admittedly not the most original work in theaters right now (Sorry To Bother You will probably hold that title for a while). It feels like a collection of various tropes you’d see out of any coming-of-age movie, or a rise-and-fall crime story, and those movies about the ugly underbelly of small town America. It also doesn’t particularly add up to anything that substantial or insightful. And also, this is just an observation – it’s such an odd coincidence that both this and The Equalizer 2 have the climax take place during a hurricane.
However, despite that, I found myself really engaged by what I was watching. Elijah Bynum puts more effort into giving the film a sense of energy and life that I was almost instantly swept up by it. While it may follow certain things we’ve seen before, there are moments where it does play with conventions a bit. One in particular is the use of a 13 year old narrator who does the voice over like he’s auditioning for the next Martin Scorsese picture. It’s played totally straight, and Shane Epstein Petrullo pulls of a few delightfully killer line deliveries along the way.
The narration isn’t just there for a gag though. It does a wonderful job at capturing that small town atmosphere. The kind where you say “everyone knows everyone,” but in reality, it’s more like “everyone has heard of everyone,” and the way people form their own strange myths and lore about the various people in the town. It gives the film a larger-than-life, folk tale quality that you don’t see a lot of in these kind of movies. The film opens with “The Following Is (Mostly) A True Story,” and I don’t know if that’s legit or if its pulling a Fargo, but because it has this feeling of being a kind of story that local kids tell each other from generation to generation, it feels real. Or at least, the illusion of real as told through the eyes of a third party who isn’t even a character. This elevates a lot of the largely shallow clichés into something just a bit more thoughtful.
On a filmmaking level, Bynum keeps the film going at a really good pace, utilizing the camera in as many ways as he can find. He never lets up, and give you the opportunity to get bored. From the quick cut montages, to the amusing asides and digressions, to the occasionally inspired needle drops, he really goes for broke here.
It also helps that the cast is rock solid all around. Chalamet is quite good here. It’s a bit rough when he has to play awkward, which I just don’t buy from him, but for the most part, he carries the film with a lot of charm. Maika Monroe plays a very specific archetype here that doesn’t totally allow her to explore much in terms of depth, and sort of results in her being informed only by the relationship to the men around her, which is problematic, but she remains a captivating screen presence and it lends to her character really well. Alex Roe plays off Chalamet well, and brings an interesting dynamic. If there’s one thing of note here that is a bit of a let down, is Thomas Jane, who plays a shady police officer, and it unfortunately doesn’t go anywhere.
There’s obviously no denying that Hot Summer Nights is a flawed pastiche of a ton of gritty teen movies that you’ve probably seen before, but if you’re willing to look past that, I think you’ll find a fairly promising directorial debut. Elijah Bynum knows how to use every technique in the book to grab your attention, and his cast is more than capable of grooving on his wavelength. While I would’ve liked to see more under the surface, the way he captures the tragic, the melancholy, the imperfections, and nostalgia of the intricacies of tight-knit communities is clearly coming from a place that feels more personal than the pop culture remix aesthetics would initially suggest. I’m honestly very curious to see what he does next.