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LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Summer of 84 (2018) in Movies

Sep 26, 2020 (Updated Sep 26, 2020)

Contains spoilers, click to show

I have mixed feelings about Summer of 84, another 80s love letter following in the wake of the cataclysmic popularity of Stranger Things. Probably easier to break this one down into bullet points.

- The four main characters are pretty hit and miss. The actors are all fine, but some of the dialogue and pop culture references seem very forced. They provide the movie with some funny moments for sure, but their characters are fairly cliché and the chemistry goes through some flat moments.
- The story is pretty straightforward and decent, and provides an entertaining mystery, but some of the plot points are odd and a lot of the characters are just insufferably stupid.
- The ending is conflicting as well. Considering the majority of the film is quite comedic and seems intended towards a family audience, the ending is pretty bleak. My initial thoughts were "fair enough, quite ballsy" but now I can't decide whether it was in fact just plain mean spirited. Either way, it left a nasty taste in my mouth, and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
- A couple of positives - I really enjoyed the music score, and the cinematography. The film has a lovely aesthetic to it.
- Not sure how the babysitter character was supposed to be portrayed, but she seemed a bit too old for a love interest to the 15 year old protagonist. Made me feel uncomfortable...

Summer of 84 is an entertaining enough psuedo-slasher thriller, but it suffers from pacing issues amongst other things that stops it being as good is it could have been.