The discovery of a dead body during the final days of summer sends four tween friends hurtling toward the end of their childhoods and toward the bitter realities of growing up and growing apart. Summering is a moving, and at times, gut-wrenching film that highlights the moments in which young adults start to see the world for the dark, unfair place it really is.

Premise

The film follows a group of young girls on the cusp of starting middle school and worrying about the future of their friendship. Lola (Sanai Victoria), Dina (Madalen Mills), Mari (Eden Grace Redfield), and Daisy (Lia Barnett) are a precocious and curious bunch who spend their summer days roaming the neighborhood and imagining themselves on great adventures. When they come across a dead body near the tween refuge they’ve created for themselves, they are determined to identify the man and bring his family peace.

What ensues is an exploration of loss, longing, and the childhood realization that the adults in our lives are far from perfect and infallible.

Cast and Characters

Each of the young actresses brings such talent, resilience, and heart to their roles. Where the film really shines is showing each girls dynamic with her mother. Although Sarah Cooper, Lake Bell, Ashley Madewke, and Megan Mullally don’t get much to do in the film, their interactions with their respective fictional daughters add depth and backstory that make the young characters feel developed and real.

Showing the variety in each girl’s home life proves to be an excellent touch as it helps explain aspects of each tween’s personality: Daisy has had to grow up quickly due to the sudden and mysterious departure of her father, which explains why she’d determined to identify the body of the dead man the girl’s find at the beginning of the film. Dina is an overachiever due to the pressure her family puts on her, and it explains her determination and need to find an answer for everything. Mari is careful and delicate when it comes to navigating Daisy’s obsession with identifying the dead man because she has learned to navigate her own mother’s obsessive and addictive personality. Lola finds it impossible to hide her feelings or what she’s thinking because of her own mother’s ability to detect any and every discrepancy in her tween daughter’s  behavior.

Again, touches like this make this world feel real and lived in.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I enjoyed this film. It was beautifully shot as it strikes a balance between being bright and sunny, but has an underlying sense of melancholy and somberness. I found myself meditating on the fate of the characters long after the film concluded. Would the girls remain friends? Would they grow apart as they grew older, headed to different schools, and had different experiences. Realistically, one or more of them will grow apart from the rest and their summer adventures will become distant memories lost in the sea of experiences and memories we make as we get older.

The film’s strength is that it manages to elevate itself above and beyond simply being Stand By Me with a female cast, and stands on its own two feet as an exploration of girlhood, childhood friendships, and the closing of a pivotal chapter of life.

Summering is currently available in select theaters and On Demand courtesy of Bleecker Street.