Review: ‘In the Summers,’ starring René Pérez Joglar, Sasha Calle, Lío Mehiel, Allison Salinas, Kimaya Thais Limòn, Luciana Quiñonez and Dreya Renae Castillo

August 2, 2024

by Carla Hay

Dreya Renae Castillo, Luciana Quiñonez and René Pérez Joglar in “In the Summers” (Photo courtesy of Music Box Films)

“In the Summers”

Directed by Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio

Culture Representation: Taking place over an approximately 15-year period in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the dramatic film “In the Summers” features a predominantly Latin cast of characters (with a few African Americans and white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two daughters have a volatile relationship with their father, who has a bad temper and who spent time in prison. 

Culture Audience: “In the Summers” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching well-acted dramas about emotionally difficult family relationships.

Lío Mehiel, Sasha Calle and René Pérez Joglar in “In the Summers” (Photo courtesy of Music Box Films)

“In the Summers” is a well-acted portrait of two daughters and their troubled father, in a story that spans several years. More character development was needed for the daughters’ adult years, but the movie has impactful authenticity. Do not expect “In the Summers” to answer all of the questions that viewers might have about these characters. The narrative for the movie is a journey where certain time-period gaps in the characters’ lives are not shown or explained.

Written and directed by Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio, “In the Summers” is Samudio’s first feature film. “In the Summers” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won two awards: Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic (the festival’s highest accolade) and Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic and Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic. “In the Summers” had its New York premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival.

The two daughters in the movie are named Violeta and Eva. Their ages are only about 12 to 18 months apart from each other. Violeta is the introverted and moody older daughter, while Eva is the extroverted and fun-loving younger daughter. “In the Summers,” which takes place over a span of about 15 years, is told in chronological order in three chapter-like sections, with each section focusing on Violeta and Eva at certain points in their lives.

When Violeta and Eva are underage, they visit their father Vicente (played by René Pérez Joglar, also known as rapper Residente) during the summer seasons at his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico, as part of a custody arrangement that he has with the mother of Violeta and Eva, who live with their mother in California. This mother (who is unnamed in the movie) and Vicente were never married. She is also not seen in the movie, but she is mentioned multiple times in ways that make it obvious that she and Vicente had a bitter breakup. Her absence from the movie indicates that the mother of Violeta and Eva wants as little to do with Vicente as possible.

The first third of “In the Summers” shows Violeta (played by Dreya Renae Castillo) at about 9 or 10 years old and Eva (played by Luciana Quiñonez) at about 7 or 8 years old. The middle of the movie shows Violeta (played by Kimaya Thais Limòn) at about 13 years old and Eva (played by Allison Salinas) at about 12 years old. The last third of the movie shows Violeta (played by Lío Mehiel) at about 25 or 24 years old and Eva (played by Sasha Calle) at about 24 or 23 years old.

“In the Summers” begins by showing Vicente picking up tween Violeta and Eva to take them to his house, where the two girls hang out by the swimming pool. Vicente mentions that even though he was born in Puerto Rico, all of his friends are in the United States. “This is my home now,” he says of his place in New Mexico.

Vicente takes Violeta and Eva to a bar where he frequently hangs out and introduces them to bartender Carmen (played by Emma Ramos), whom Vicente has known since childhood. Vicente teaches Violeta and Eva how to play pool at this bar. Carmen treats Violeta and Eva with kindness and respect.

It all seems like enjoyable family time, but Vicente’s flaws start to show when he takes Violeta and Eva to an amusement park, where he and the girls go on a Tilt-A-Whirl ride. After the ride is over, Eva get sick and vomits in a garbage can. A concerned passerby woman (played by Erin Wendorf) asks if they need any help. Vicente gets very angry at the woman, curses at her, and tells her to mind her own business. It won’t be the last time that Vicente loses his temper in a very hostile way.

Through conversations, it’s revealed that Vicente spent time in prison and has a hard time finding or keeping a job. He also appears to have alcoholism—or, at the very least, he gets drunk in ways that are excessive, embarrassing, and potentially dangerous to himself and people around him. Vicente is also fond of smoking marijuana. It’s unclear where Vicente is getting money to pay his bills and party habits when he’s unemployed.

“In the Summers” is told from the perspectives of Violeta and Eva, who aren’t old enough at this point in their lives to get professional help for Vicente. And if even if they were old enough, it wouldn’t matter because insecure and arrogant Vicente gives the impression that he wouldn’t want the help. He has a macho personality that is quick to deny that he has any weaknesses or vulnerabilities.

The sisters are tight-knit and rely on each other for emotional support. As an example of their different personalities, there’s a scene where Vicente is driving Violeta and Eva at a high speed in his car on a street, just because he feels like being a daredevil. Violeta is fearful during this reckless driving, while Eva loves it.

Near the end of the movie’s segment that shows tween Violeta and Eva, there’s a scene where Violeta asks Eva to cut her hair short. Violeta will keep her hair short for the remainder of the years shown in the movie. She also stops wearing traditionally “feminine” clothes and wears outfits that are more unisex or “masculine.”

During the period of time depicting the adolescence of Violeta and Eva, it becomes much clearer to Violeta that she is a lesbian or queer. She becomes romantically attracted to a girl who’s about the same age named Camila (played by Gabriella Surodjawan), who shows up at one of the many house parties that Vicente likes to host. Vicente is very homophobic, so Violeta is afraid to tell him about her true sexuality.

Violeta becomes increasingly alienated from Vicente, who senses that Violeta is not heterosexual, but he doesn’t want to talk about it with her. Because he is such an irresponsible parent, Vicente thinks that one way he can bond with teenage Violeta is to teach her how to smoke marijuana. But he still has a raging temper that comes out in very ugly and harmful ways. Later, Carmen (who is an out lesbian) becomes an important role model and confidante to Violeta.

“In the Summers” has a somewhat awkward and abrupt transition to the last third of the movie that shows Violeta and Eva in their early-to-mid-20s. By this time, they no longer have to visit Vicente or spend any time living with him. Vicente has a much-younger live-in girlfriend named Yenny (played by Leslie Grace), and they have an infant daughter named Natalia (played by Indigo Montez), who are accepted by Violeta and Eva.

By the time the movie shows Violeta and Eva in their early-to-mid-20s, there are many unexplained and unspoken things that happened in between their early teens and their early-to-mid-20s. “In the Summers” doesn’t adequately show or tell what Violeta’s and Eva’s interests or hobbies are, as indications of their hopes and dreams. Instead, “In the Summers” defines Violeta and Eva in terms of how they cope with their father’s messy parenting.

Viewers learn that by the time adult Violeta and adult Eva see Vicente again after a period of estrangement, Violeta is in grad school. What type graduate program? The movie never says. However, it’s easy to predict what will happen when adult Violeta and single mother Camila (played by Sharlene Cruz) encounter each other after not seeing each other since they were in high school. As for adult Eva, at this point in her life, she’s unattached and having meaningless flings with men.

Mehiel and Calle give perfectly fine performances as adult Violeta and adult Eva, but there are too many unanswered questions about Violeta and Eva as adults. How did their upbringing affect their relationships with other people? What type of relationships do they have with their mother? What are the most important things in life to Violeta and Eva? The movie’s story really didn’t need the parts where Violeta and Eva are under the age of 10 and should have spent more time developing the characters of Violeta and Eva as adults because those questions are never answered in the movie.

The meaningful and best-acted part of “In the Summers” is in the middle section, when the tensions between teenage Violeta and Vicente flare up and boil over into angry conflicts. As an underage teen, Violeta is too young to be able to get out of this custody visitation with her father, but she’s too old to no longer be fully controlled by Vicente, in terms of what she does in her free time and what types of clothes she wants to wear. Violeta wants to assert her independence, but as an underage teen, she still has be somewhat under the control of a parent (Vicente) whose life is very much out of control.

Joglar gives a naturalistic performance as Vicente, who has a lot of flaws, but there are many people in real life who are like Vicente or who have parent similar to Vicente. The movie doesn’t sugarcoat or make excuses for Vicente’s bad decisions and awful temper, but instead presents these characteristics as harsh realities. “In the Summers” is more of a “slice of life” film than a fully complete story about this dysfunctional family that’s trying to heal from emotional wounds. The movie isn’t groundbreaking, but it offers several poignant moments that are credibly acted.

Music Box Films will release “In the Summers” in select U.S. cinemas on September 20, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 5, 2024.

Review: ‘In the Heights,’ starring Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera, Olga Merediz, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Jimmy Smits

May 21, 2021

by Carla Hay

Anthony Ramos and Melissa Barrera (center) in “In the Heights” (Photo by Macall Polay/Warner Bros. Pictures)

“In the Heights” 

Directed by Jon M. Chu

Some language in Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood, this movie version of the Tony-winning musical “In the Heights” features a predominantly Hispanic group of characters (with some African Americans and white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A young Dominican American man living in New York City’s Washington Heights is torn between staying in the neghborhood or moving to his family’s native Dominican Republic to re-open his late father’s tiki bar.

Culture Audience: “In the Heights” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in Broadway musicals with contemporary music and movies about Hispanic American culture.

Corey Hawkins and Melissa Grace in “In the Heights” (Photo by Macall Polay/Warner Bros. Pictures)

The movie adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical “In the Heights” brings a cinematic vibrancy that makes it a joy to watch on screen and an instant crowd-pleaser. The movie keeps the main storyline and themes intact from the Broadway show but adds some memorable set designs, eye-popping choreography and impressive visual effects that couldn’t be done in a theater stage production. And this well-cast movie also has standout performances that will be sure to charm fans of the Broadway show as well as win over new fans. The “In the Heights” movie is set to have its world premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

Directed by Jon M. Chu, “In the Heights” has an adapted screenplay written by Quiara Alegría Hudes, who wrote the book for Broadway’s “In the Heights,” which takes place in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood. The movie version of “In the Heights” keeps the same songs from the stage musical, whose music and lyrics were written by Miranda. The movie is updated to include more social-awareness themes related to Dreamers, the nickname for undocumented children of undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

The “In the Heights” movie, just like the stage musical, combines several character storylines in a tale that ultimately adds up to love in many different forms. There’s the love that 29-year-old protagonist/bodega owner Usnavi de la Vega (played by Anthony Ramos) has for his family, his Washington Heights neighborhood and his family’s native Dominican Republic. During the course of the story, he also falls in love with aspiring fashion designer Vanessa (played by Melissa Barrera), who also lives in Washington Heights. Usnavi is somewhat shy around assertive Vanessa, who plays hard to get, but eventually Vanessa falls for Usnavi too.

Romance is also in the air for car dispatch operator Benny (played by Corey Hawkins) and college student Nina Rosario (played by Leslie Grace), who has come home to Washington Heights while on a break from her studies at California’s Stanford University. Benny is easygoing and respectful, while Nina is intelligent and compassionate. Nina’s strong-willed and doting father also happens to be Benny’s boss: Rosario’s Car Service owner Kevin Rosario (played by Jimmy Smits), who is immensely proud that his daughter is a Stanford student, and he will do what it takes to pay her university tuition.

The beloved “grandmother” of the neighborhood is Abuela Claudia (played by Olga Merediz), who doesn’t have kids of her own, but she has a nuturing, maternal attitude toward many people in Washington Heights. Claudia is particularly close to Usnavi, whose parents are deceased. Usnavi, who is an only child, moved to the U.S. with his parents when he was 8 years old. And since his parents’ death, Usnavi has become even closer to Claudia. Meanwhile, Usnavi has also known Nina for several years, and he treats Nina like she’s his younger sister.

Usnavi is a mentor to his smart and wisecracking teenage cousin Sonny (played by Gregory Diaz IV), who works part-time in Usnavi’s bodega. Sonny needs a mentor because he has an alcoholic father named Gapo (played by Marc Anthony), who is the brother of Usnavi’s father. A local attorney named Alejandro (played by Mateo Gomez) plays a key role in facilitating what becomes Usnavi’s dream: to move back to the Dominican Republic and re-open a beachfront tiki bar called El Suenito that used to be owned by Usnavi’s late father.

Rounding out the story’s main characters are “The Salon Ladies,” a trio of sassy and opinionated beauty salon workers: Daniela (played by Daphne Rubin-Vega), who is the salon’s owner; Carla (played by Stephanie Beatriz), who is Daniela’s much-younger live-in lover; and Cuca (played by Dascha Polanco), who is their loyal sidekick friend. Vanessa works in the salon too, but she’d rather be a fashion designer. A graffiti artist named Graffiti Pete (played by Noah Catala) is one of Usnavi’s friends. There’s also a character named Pike Phillips (played by Patrick Page), who owns a dry cleaning business next door to Rosario’s Car Service, and he plays a role that affects the fate of a few of the characters’ fortunes.

“In the Heights” creator Miranda has a small role in the movie as a sarcastic street vendor named Piragüero, who sells piragua/shaved ice. Keep watching through the movie’s ending credits to see a comical scene of Miranda’s Piragüero getting into a spat with a Mr. Softee ice cream truck driver, played by Christopher Jackson, who is Miranda’s best friend and longtime Broadway co-star. It’s an example of the touches of humor in an otherwise dramatic story.

The movie begins with Usnavi in a tropical beach setting, telling four kids (about 4 to 6 years old) the story about his life in Washington Heights. The four children are Iris (played by Olivia Perez), Rosa (played by Analia Gomez), Sedo (played by Dean Vazquez) and Migo (played by Mason Vazquez). The kids are very attentive and adorable. But it’s clear that Iris is the most intelligent and inquisitive out of all of them.

Usnavi’s story is about the sweltering summer when he decided he was going to move back to the Dominican Republic and re-open El Suenito. What follows is an immersive, rollercoaster ride of a story, with plenty of joy, heartbreak, fear and love. It begins with various cast members performing “In the Heights,” in an epic sequence where viewers are introduced to Usnavi’s life in Washington Heights and all the people he’s close to in the neighborhood.

Other tunes performed by cast members in the movie are “Benny’s Dispatch,” “Breathe,” “You’ll Be Back” “No Me Diga,” “It Won’t Be Long Now,” “Cuando Llega el Tren,” “96,000,” “Piragua,” “Always,” “When You’re Home,” “The Club,” “Blackout,” “Paciencia Y Fe,” “Carnaval Del Barrio,” “Alabanza,” “Champagne,” “When the Sun Goes Down,” “Home All Summer” and “Finale.” Some of set designs for “In the Heights” are a visual treat and enhance these musical numbers. Two examples that are highlights are the massive synchronized swimming scene in a public swimming pool for “96,000,” and when Benny and Nina (with the help of visual effects) duet on “When You’re Home” with some gymnast-like moves on the side of an apartment building.

An electrical blackout happens in the middle of this summer heatwave. The movie has a timetable of events before and after the blackout. It’s a blackout that changes the lives of the characters, some more dramatically than others.

“In the Heights” is rich with Hispanic culture and doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable topics. Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Mexicans and people from Central and South America are celebrated in some way in the movie. And Usnavi’s desire to move back to the Dominican Republic is indicative of not only honoring his family but also reconnecting with his Dominican roots.

Nina represents the experience of people from Hispanic families who are the first to get a chance to graduate from a prestigious university in the United States. On the one hand, Nina is considered an exalted role model for the community and has all the pressures that come with it. On the other hand, Nina describes the pain of racism and not feeling like she fits in a privileged, predominantly white setting such as Stanford.

During a few of the movie’s more poignant scenes, Nina describes how her Stanford experience isn’t as glamorous as people in Washington Heights might think it is. Nina talks about how she was wrongfully accused of theft by her white Stanford roommate. And on another occasion, Nina attended a diversity dinner at Stanford, and someone wrongfully assumed that she was one of the servers.

All of the cast members are admirable in their roles, but the standouts are Ramos, Grace and Merediz, whose characters go through the biggest emotional arcs in the movie. Merediz’s performance of “Paciencia Y Fe” will simply give people chills. It’s the type of scene that will have audiences moved to applaud and cheer loudly. Grace is also a very talented singer/actress who can convincingly portray feelings without over-emoting like someone performing on a theater stage.

And as the story’s protagonist/narrator Usnavi, Ramos carries the movie with charm and vulnerability. He’s not super-confident when courting Vanessa, and he’s often teased about his insecurities by his observant cousin Sonny. For the two big romances in the movie (Usnavi and Vanessa; Benny and Nina), it isn’t about whether or not these two couples will get together. It’s more about if they can stay together, considering that they have long-distance issues that could wreck their relationships.

Whether or not people got a chance to see “In the Heights” on stage, the movie is a lively celebration in its own right. It’s a story with universal and relevant themes that can be understood by people of any generation. And the movie brings new dimensions and nuances to the story that will inspire people to see it multiple times, preferably on the biggest screen possible.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “In the Heights” in U.S. cinemas and on HBO Max on June 10, 2021. The release date was moved up from June 11, 2021.

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