Summer of '69

Screened on Hulu.

I went into this hoping for a good first "vehicle" for Chloe Fineman, and came away thinking this was a good vehicle for Sam Morelos, the teenager of the story looking to "69" her high school crush. She came across as a genuine and refreshing personality and really carried the film. Fineman was just fine, man, but both actresses were working with a first-time director here, and it really showed. And in ways I don't think Ive ever experienced with other debut features.

This of course is basically a TV movie, never released in theaters and never intended to, so expectations should be tampered to some degree. Those lines are quite blurry these days as to what is a "film" or what is a "TV show,". but put it this way: if this WAS intended to be a theatrical release, I know exactly why it debuted on streaming television: director Jillian Bell. From the jump, there were plenty of moments that were easy to place blame on her, and by the end it couldn't have been more clear Summer of '69 needed someone else at the controls.

The entire final third completely fell apart, despite the genuinely good efforts from Fineman, Morelos, and the rest of the otherwise good cast. Even the script was mostly OK, despite just a few laughs I finally experienced towards the film's conclusion. It's not that Bell doesn't have a future in directing by any means, but lessons must be learned from this if she wants to succeed as a director.