In the Summers
Music Box Films
Video: 1080p High Definition
Audio: English & Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD MA; English & Spanish 2.0 DTS-HD MA
Subtitles: English/Spanish
Buy it from Music Box Films

by Billy Russell, Associate Editor

The Movie: Excellent

In the Summers, written and directed by Alessandra Lacorazza is split into four different summers that sisters Eva and Violeta spend at their father’s house in Las Cruces, NM. Vicente (René Pérez), their father, is an alcoholic. The first summer they spend with him is nearly magical. He shows them his hometown, how to play pool, how to watch the stars in the night sky. But even at his most charming self, there’s a darkness to him. The next summer, he’s a worse version of himself. The pool they all used to lounge in is now half-empty and in disrepair. The pool drains toward empty as the relationship between Vicente and his children becomes more and more fractured.

It’s not surprising that In the Summers is a semi-autobiographical account of her own experience in growing up with an alcoholic father. The film feels lived in. There are tiny details that it gets right. Vicente isn’t a bad person, but he does bad things. In so many films about addicts, that’s their default state. That’s who they are, all the time, always. They’re the mess. The failings that someone embodies when they’re at their lowest. Lacorazza understands that’s not usually the case. Instead, Vicente, as a character, is a charming person who’s funny and smart and full of genuine love for his children, but as his condition worsens his demons emerge to the surface more and more frequently.

I saw a lot of my own father in Vicente. While there are no bad performances, and all the actors that portray Eva and Violeta throughout the years are excellent, René Pérez puts in a tour de force performance that’s nothing short of remarkable. There’s something in Vicente, where his mood can change just like that. One minute he’s laughing and joking, and the next that spark is gone and he’s spiralling toward an outburst.

While watching In the Summers, I thought of my dad a lot. Movies like this, these slices of life, were a big part of my life growing up. My dad was an alcoholic and, like Eva, I got swept up in the spiral and I, too, tried to drown my trauma with alcohol. Like Vicente, my dad was a smart guy, and he taught me a lot about the things he loved. My dad loved movies. I remember, one night, the movie Atlantic City, directed by Louis Malle came on our local PBS station and we watched it together. I was young, so I hadn’t ever seen anything like it before. My dad explained that it’s not like most American movies I’m used to watching, that Louis Malle was, first and foremost, an artist. That he was interested not in the story itself, but in how the story affected his characters. He taught me the phrase “slice of life” for these kinds of movies, where we watch a period of time in a character’s life and watch them grow–for better, for worse, and everything in between.

In the Summers is a terrific feature debut by Alessandra Lacorazza and it’s going to stick with me for a long time. This is the kind of movie that stays with you, lingers, and hangs there like the memory of the film is one of your own. It embodies the empathetic power of filmmaking, where the experience of someone, who couldn’t be more different from you, opens up a window into their life and you feel like you’ve lived it yourself.

The Packaging: Average

Music Box Films has released In the Summers on a single-disc Blu-ray housed in a standard case. There’s nothing remarkable about its packaging, no booklet of essays included or reversible artwork, but the cover art for this release does a great job at conveying its simple story visually.

The Video: Good

In the Summers is presented in 1080p high-definition video for this Blu-ray release. Details are sharp and the southwestern color palette is beautifully realized. Visually, my favorite thing about In the Summers is its use of color–bright bits of red or blue to stand out against the white of the desert sand or the pale yellow of Vicente’s house. There were a couple of extremely, extremely minor issues of color banding in lowlight/nighttime sequences, but these shots were momentary and not at all distracting. Overall, the visual presentation of In the Summers was quite good.

The Audio: Excellent

In the Summers is available in two options, both encoded in DTS-HD Master Audio: A 2.0 stereo option and a 5.1 surround sound option. I toggled back and forth between the two options for the purpose of this review and for folks using a two-channel soundbar or their TV’s built-in speakers, the stereo option is terrific. Dialogue clarity is razor sharp, while music, ambient effects, etc. still pack plenty of punch.

For viewers with a 5.1 surround option, In the Summers has a wonderful, immersive surround sound design, with a fully-enveloping soundstage. Rear speaker activity is at a nearly-constant level and the design seems to be very cognizant of camera placement. If, in a scene, a radio is playing softly at the front of the action, we’ll hear a faint echo of it in the rear. Ambient effects like a summer wind, chitchat at a crowded party, or the whoosh of traffic, add a lifelike realism to the film.

Special Features: Good

Music Box Films has assembled a lot of great supplemental features for In the Summers, including an audio commentary from writer/director Alessandra Lacorazza, interviews, a short film and interviews with the cast and crew.

Audio Commentary - With writer/director Alessandra Lacorazza
Sundance Meet the Artist - A quick interview with Lacorazza, discussing the film
Making a Sundance Gem - Cast interview from the Sundance Film Festival by Collider
Filmmaker Q&A - With René “Residente” Joglar Pérez and Lacorazza from the NYC Premiere
More Than a Movie - Podcast interview with Residente and Lacorazza
Deleted Scenes
Bloopers
Mami - A short film by Lacorazza
Image Gallery
Theatrical Trailer

In Summary: Grab it on Sale

In the Summers is a terrific Blu-ray release from Music Box Films. The film is fantastic, an incredible directorial debut from filmmaker Alessandra Lacorazza, and this disc does the film justice with great A/V stats and supplemental features that contextualize the film’s narrative and themes. If you’re a first-time watcher, you might want to catch it on streaming first, but if you’ve seen, and loved, In the Summers, this absolutely belongs in your physical media library.

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