Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: IN THE SUMMERS [Sundance Film Festival 2024 - Park City, Utah]

"In The Summers" [US Dramatic Competition] is a story of lost time and opportunities through the eyes of two sisters: Eva and Violeta as they grow up through the times of their childhood with a father Vincente, who is both elusive, lost, pitiful and a series of hopes dashed into one. Split into 4 parts, each taking on a different visit, the girls (including once without Violeta) take to visit their father who lives at his family's old house in Las Cruces. The girls themselves live primarily with their mother in California (both of which we never see). Las Cruces is a waste land but one that becomes a getaway or prison for the girls depending how one sees it. Residente plays Vincente and he does so with a vivid bruised ego where anything can hurt his idea of who he thinks he is. He fronts in many ways and yet we don't have an idea of what he does. There is a allusion to being a drug dealer with some day work. He wants in the first part to connect with his girls but both are very different and all he knows is what he knows. He tries his best on the inset to be present (despite his nature per se). But whether playing pool, getting mad for very little reason or drinking too much and scarying his kids by just not quite being the father he needs to be, he whittles away any goodwill and empathy.

His daughters want to love him but as they enter the tween years there is a sense of pity but also a creepy power struggle in a way. Vincente is trying to be the fun dad but he is more at war with himself by not really knowing what his potential is or what he wants to do. His impulses are mostly wrong and he tries to make up for it by making a bigger mess which is how the second act of the film ends. It is something hard to recover from and hopefully something that will change perspective. However it doesn't seem to create any kind of solution except to push his daughters further out. In the 3rd act only one returns. It is interesting to see the psychological threads of what different personalities are willing to accept but also how others seemingly create bigger walls. Vincente creates another family in a way without any idea how to manage that any better than what he did before. One specific scene both with a game at home that becomes advertorial for no reason (as well as a pool game that shows the crushed ego of Vincente) really shows that this man watched life go by. Maybe in his mind it was the best he can do.

You can see a glimmer of hope in him which never quite coelesces. The 4th act is where the most textured acting is but it is only because of the previous three parts where the sisters are played by different actors. Now all grown up (at least in their early 20s), they can see their father for who is but also who he is not. They can say no but they also see he is living in the past. It is heartbreaking. The girls live their life, they do what they want, they are there and they try to understand. This is their father and yet he is not there while he is there in a way. He even says "you were better off without me" which is untrue because they tried at many points. In this point, you can see his regret but in not in any way that they can fix. The girls are the same way and yet they know they can never change him. They can just manage their relationship and accept what was not. It is quietly poetic and yet a series of missed hopes. B+

By Tim Wassberg