The editor’s note: This review was originally published in 2024 Tribeca Festival. Vertical editions ”Griffin in summer“In selected theaters on Friday, August 29, 2025.
Griffin Nafly (Everett Blunck) is not like other 14-year-olds. Think of his contribution to his school’s talent show at the end of the year: an excerpt of his latest game where he reads for both lead roles, an unaffected stockbroker and his drunken wife, when they scream and continue about everything from unbelief to abortions. While everyone else is satisfied with pop song duets, it’s griffin – too old during their years, too young to really break away – who wants to Bring some actual art to the suburban stage.
And although everything can be ok, even quite funThe real problem is not just that Griffin is not like most other 14-year-olds, it is that he doesn’t even like his closest friends either. While his childhood friends, including “Are you there, God? It’s me Margaret” Breakout Abbie Ryder Fortson When his long-suffering second-in-command Kara moves to a classic young adult age-hittar handy boyfriends, becomes full of a jar with hard Seltzer, leaning on their scientific interests-has barely developed since last summer. Then, Griffin and Co. spent his days preparing another of his game for the stage. This year? He might go alone.
It is difficult to blame the kiddos because I have spent his summer working on an excursion that Griffin Giddily calls “” Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf? “Meeting ‘American Beauty.’ “Nicholas Colia’s debut with function director,” Griffin in the summer “, spins of that kind of naughty humor to what could easily be described as A Tween -Tag at “Theater Camp” Or better yet, a version of “Theater Camp” where the lovely theater in their heart didn’t even have each other To lean on when the times became tough.
Griffin’s maned, very Almost average attitude towards life-he is the type of child who calls her mother, played by the always clear Melanie Lynskey, with her first name-starts carry thin (blunk, however, remains a charming breakstar star in the whole). And while Colia initially leans into Griffin’s personality and pre -love, his script slowly beats deeper, more emotional discoveries. Like, for example, what does Griffin know exactly about efforts and outs in adult relationships? While the tone swings that come with Colia’s story do not always flow with ease and a certain amount of whiplash grabs the second act, many of the revelations that he discover do that these issues are worth it.
Such is the case with Colia’s sensitive handling of the unexpected relationship that takes shape when Griffin struggles with the potentially gloomy summer forward. Enter: Brad. Played by Rising Star Owen TeagueOnce the performance artist (he was in “events”, and oh, what a treat when we get to see them on a grainy youtube video) is now a fleeting handyman, doomed to spend his own summer to help Griffin’s mother around the house and try cobbled money to get back to Bushwick. Originally disgust Griffin him. And then, yes, Brad locks up some other feelings in him.
It is the kind of story that is ripe for mistakes, and although there are still moments when the audience may wonder, “Wait, is this fun or is it scary?”, Colia is mostly standing what he is trying. While Brad’s presence awakens new feelings in Griffin – including Abject Terror when introducing Brad’s girlfriend, played by a wonderfully unpleasant Kathryn Newton – he also helps to drive the young playwright in fresh creative spaces. Part of Brad’s influence is deliberately stupid (at one point, the male leadership of Griffin’s developing game announces that he was a “stock market” living in Bushwick), and the temporary cast of Brad in the game is really funny.
Colia tries to bind her comic feelings and her more emotional tendencies in a rank third act. Beats he needs to beat and the journey he needs to take griffin is expected, at least to end in a place that fits the warm -hearted nature of filmBut Colia still finds some surprises along the way. As a showcase for his star casting abilities and skill for heartwarming stories, “Griffin in Summer” is a very nice functional registration debut. Even better, it can make nerds like Griffin realize something that can often take too long to learn: they are really not alone.
Rating: B.
“Griffin in Summer” premiered at the Film Festival 2024. Vertical releases it in theaters on Friday, August 29, 2025.
