Last Summer

The poster gave me the impression this maybe the UK version of "Stand by me", but it was nothing like it except for the story evolves around 4 boys. Davy(Noa Thomas) spends his summer days with his brother Iwan(Gruffydd Weston) and best friends, Rhys(Rowan Jones) and Robbie(Christopher Benning).

Then they witness a tragedy between Rhys and Robbie's parents. Their much older brother Kev(Steffan Cennydd) finds out the reason behind it and try to revenge a neighbor named Dai(Richard Harrington) for it while the family is falling apart.

Sensitive Davy refuses to accept the sudden change in his best friends circumstance and tries to correct it by himself. But he's too young to fully understand the situation and to powerless to do anything about it.

Growing up in a loveless household myself, I understand the parents as well as the kids what they want and why they want it. The movie climaxes when Davy confronts in hopes of turning back things the way it was, but it ends very realistic way without any tragedy. I love this movie exactly for it because life is like that.

The cinematography is beautiful and the acting is pretty solid from mostly unknown actors. Wish to see them more in the future. This is a heartbreaking story without any good or evil, because that's what we are like.

Great film, strongly advise buying it. I would use it as a time capsule because it perfectly en-captures what it was like back then. Get it now

Okay, first of all the young main character seems to be a mentally challenged special needs child, although that's not intended to be the case. His actions and words just go beyond any sane measure of belief. I get his loyalty to his friends after tragedy, but the way he bosses his parents and acts like a little snot gets tiresome, especially since the parents (mainly the Mom) cows to him and apologizes when she's done nothing wrong. And I've never seen an idiot so incapable of holding onto a dog or even tying one up. See what I mean? Mentally challedged. Terrible. Well acted overall with some good scenic shots but the ending was just too darn convenient and tidy. Just too much ridiculousness to overlook for me. Of the 5 kids, 3 were quite good. The one I mentioned not so much, and the older brother of the family hit by the tragedy was a complete fool. Example: Threatening to kill a man right in front of the cops. To the cops! Then he assaults the man and a cop and oh well it's all good he's soon free again. The only saving glory here is Richard Harrington, but his role, while crucial to the plot, did not give him much screen time. Worth a one time view, I suppose.

I am not going to ruin the impact or lessen anyone's enjoyment of this remarkable movie by giving any of the plot away. Suffice to say, this did not turn out to be the movie I thought I was going to see when I started watching it. Like some of the other reviewers here, I thought this would be a sort of ersatz 'Stand By Me', only done from a Welsh stand point. And for the first ten minutes, it looked like this movie would be exactly that before it suddenly veered off in a totally different and altogether unexpected direction. Raw and visceral, this movie is not what you would call family entertainment despite the main characters being 4 teenage boys. I read that the four boys were newcomers to acting when they made this movie and that is remarkable because they do an excellent job. They are all good, but in particular young Noa Thomas who plays Davy, the central character, shines. So much of what happens in the movie is seen through his eyes and he gives an intelligent, believable, totally sympathetic performance. Throughout the movie, his motivations are an enigma and the viewer is left to wonder if he is a hindrence or a help, a comforter or a antagonist to those around him, but at the end his motives are revealed and it touches all of us.

I don't know if you would call this a coming-of-age movie in the sense that we're used to, although there is no doubt all the characters are changed by the end. I can say though that this is a very good film and I'm looking forward to watching it again soon.

As a child of the 70s, the plight of the Morris boys is spot on. When tragedy occurred, the powers that be took over. Children's feelings were second thoughts. The prime directive was to get them in a "safe place" and move on ASAP.

If you have any empathy at all, watching the Morrises lose it all as the Davies boys deal with their own trauma is heartbreaking. The actors portraying these young men are absolutely honest and real. I cannot wait to see where these artists end up in the future because they are talented, soulful actors.