Cruel Summer

I gave this film a 9 due to sentimental reasons. As a parent of an autistic child, this film brought out the cruelty of human beings and also the vulnerability.

The acting by the three stooges at times was a bit meh, but the acting of Danny was spot on.

I hope the film shows awareness towards people who are a bit different. Autism isn't a disease.

The film also shows those individuals as bullies. This is reality folks.

A short film which shows the good and bad in people.

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.

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]

The poster and title - sooo misleading. In fact, it's pretty CRUEL they used a horror-movie themed advertisement to sell a dramatic story that takes place in less than 24 hours, let alone a whole "summer."

Movie posters and trailers are often deceptive, but it's their job to sell their product. The actual substance of this "true story," is NOTHING like the Friday the 13th-type poster and title. Thankfully, I was not tricked as I had read the synopsis before clicking on this movie to watch. But, looking back, while writing this, I'm appalled at the artwork for the film and title. I mean, as stated, this all takes place in less than 24 hours, not the typical 3-months of summer.

Another flaw, if you can call the person who named this and advertisers "flaws" for the film, itself, is the substance. The movie is incredibly short for such a horrific "real life-inspired" event and even at its 80 minutes, the actual movie ends at minute 72 with 8 astounding minutes of credits. Additionally, all-but nothing happens for the first 45-50 minutes, so you'll have basically 22 bona fide minutes of actual substance of the "inspired events."

Now, that all said, those approximately 22 minutes are extreme, shocking and further detriments the title. It wasn't "cruel," it was inhuman. "Disgustingly evil" would describe those last 22 minutes.

Basically one hot head loses his mind and reverts back to pre-primate thinking after a break up. He concocts a lie with one of his blokes after he hears of another lie of a young autistic boy sleeping with his now ex. The entire premise of the lies is weak, but apparently, the hot head needs his vengeance out on someone and the power he absorbs by manipulating and controlling a girl who fancies him and his mate is intoxicating to him.

Meanwhile, the autistic boy, probably his first ever trip out alone from his parents in the wilderness is completely content with his accomplishments of camping alone. He truly looks at peace. And that's what makes the events that follow, that fateful Saturday, when the 3 bad teens meet up with him and punish him (BAD) for absolutely nothing...all the more unbelievably torturous to see.

Anyone getting mistreated by bullies is bad enough, but to see how this completely innocent and at peace autistic boy is tortured so one alpha male can release some anger...is an abomination.

Not sure the intentions of the filmmakers. To tell the story of the non-eventful events leading up to the tragic story and show the monsters these pricks were, or to cash in on the event for film-rights. For, once the story concludes - and believe me, I was completely and utterly emotional, it just abruptly ends, giving us a description of what happened next in 3 short sentences for what probably dragged on for months, if not years.

I will say this: despite any intentions, the movie was beautifully shot, well-acted, believable and those last 22 minutes, including the VERY last 3-4, were so emotional for me, it's almost worth a recommendation. But, it's hard to tell someone else to see this when probably no one should ever.

Unless they want to know true evil of some dumb bloke.

***

Final thoughts: Since this movie is so heavy, I'd like to finish on a lighter note: I loved the song "Cruel Summer" by BOTH Bananarama and Ace of Base in my younger days. That's all. Nothing about the movie and no, they play neither song in the movie. Spoiler? Ha.