Title: Hot Summer Nights
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Elijah Bynum
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Maika Monroe, Alex Roe
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins

What It Is:  It’s the 1980’s and Daniel (Chalamet) is an ambitious young man living with his aunt in Cape Cod for the summer. His entrepreneurial spirit puts him in direct contact with the Cod’s local drug dealer Hunter (Roe). Daniel tries to help Hunter raise his game to more than just barely fleshing out a profit. As they start to make that bread, things will start to get in the way. Whether it’s the increased workload or…you know…girls. Girls like Hunter’s beautiful sister McKayla (Monroe).

What We Think: Narratively speaking this film is an utter mess. The dialogue is horrid and the direction is pretty damned aimless. This is Bynum’s directorial debut and it shows. Cinematographer Javier Julia makes the film both look and feel like it’s time period. That’s about all this film has going for it. Maika Monroe is typically good even in bad films. She’s a star once again here. Check out films like It Follows, The Guest, and Bokeh for more evidence. Chalamet’s direct follow up to his Oscar-nominated role in Call Me By Your Name. It’s a film not worthy of that fact. Chalamet is good and it is quite obvious this young man is talented and has a long career ahead. Even with this misstep.

Our Grade: D+, This is by no means a good film. It’s not a disaster necessarily. There are things to like and first amongst them is the soundtrack. That thing is straight fire from the get-go. Roxette, Mott the Hoople, and The Outfield are all on here. I can’t recommend this. Just look up the soundtrack and make a playlist. In fact, we’ve provided a link to one below. Go listen to it if you have Apple Music. In the meantime avoid this one. Unless you wanna take a nap it’s good for that!

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS SOUNDTRACK

https://itunes.apple.com/us/playlist/hot-summer-nights-soundtrack/pl.u-yZyVDvrFZRo21a