Cruel Summer

I'm a little torn over how I feel about 'Cruel Summer'. It's based on a true story, which makes the pretty horrific theme of the film even tougher to stomach. It's certainly a movie that pulls no punches and I always appreciate that in a movie. Showing everything and not holding back is a way of honouring your audience and showing them respect.

My problem with the film though is that I'm not sure it earns the right to show what it does. What I mean by that is that a film has to do more than simply be a retelling of events. It also needs to provide commentary and subliminal opinions, otherwise it might as well be a dramatisation featured in a documentary. I felt that 'Cruel Summer' was too simple in its approach. At times it doesn't even feel like a movie you are watching.

This film is certainly not for the faint-hearted. There are some pretty horrific images featured here that are definitely not going to be to everyone's liking. It's a watchable movie, that could have been more.

Cruel Summer is very much along the lines of Eden Lake. A young adult with autism goes camping for his Duke of Edinburgh award to find himself at the mercy of a young thug with revenge on his mind.

This is a small budget film and a simple plot but nevertheless it's extremely well made and always engrossing if exceptionally uncomfortable viewing. I thought it was very realistic and all the actors involved did a great job. Danny Miller has received rave reviews for his performances in the British soap Emmerdale and it is clear that he is a hugely talented actor that if he wants can go far. The rest of the cast are less well known but all convince.

I found this quite emotionally draining and pretty upsetting and it will live long in the mind. The fact things like this happen makes it all the more sad. The ending was heartbreaking and beautifully done.

This is an unsettling film and not a film to necessarily enjoy as such and therefore won't appeal to everyone. Still for those with the stomach for it this is a brutal but impressive film.

This film implies it's based on a true story which I think is dishonest. It's loosely "inspired" by a few different notable violent crimes. Presenting it as based-on-a-true-story is a cheap way to make their movie seem more legitimate. The main characters are trashy and uninteresting. No depth. No real emotion. To the reviewer favorably comparing this to Bully and Boys Don't Cry, you are either part of the film crew or completely ignorant when it comes to filmmaking and story telling. This film is somehow managed to be pretensious and trashy at the same time.

Cruel Summer is about a young autistic boy named Danny trying to get some peace by going camping on his own. Meanwhile three other teenagers Nicholas, Julia and Calvin are searching for him to take revenge for something that he has apparently done.

This was a hard watch and the fact that it apparently is based on true events makes the whole thing even worse. On one side you watch Danny just being happy that he has some time on his own being camping and texting his parents how much fun he has. You have calm and peaceful music and really start to empathize with him.

On the other hand you have the three teenagers and follow them through their daily shenanigans searching for Danny. You can immediately tell that Nicholas is the driving force. He is an absolute douchebag and you wish nothing good for him. Julia is just a follower that does everything that Nicholas says without thinking twice. And then there's Calvin whose the only one with a backbone, he questions Nicholas deeds and his search for revenge on Danny. This creates a strong contrasts dependent on who is on screen and how you feel about these characters.

A little bit over half way through the movie they find Danny and start harassing him. It starts off slow but their behavior gets worse by the minute. Like I said this was a really hard watch and definitely was able to set free some emotions. But the movie really takes a time before it starts going. It explores our characters which for me started to get boring after some time. The movie felt longer than it is and with 80 minutes runtime it already is a pretty short movie. However I enjoyed watching it and therefore I think it's underrated. [5,6/10]

This movie would have been good if they would have sped it up a bit. So long and sewn out meaningless side plots that it made the movie not very good.