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.

So it's based on a true story. Loosely based on from something I remember about a handicapped boy being tortured.

This film was just basically 3/4 of scummy people being scummy, no interesting plot whatsoever, 1/4 horrific torture and violence. The end.

It didn't even make sense other than the main nasty character just felt like going after this autistic boy because he was a complete and utterly psychopath? Because he could?!

The story would of been better told by having the horrific incident in the middle and the legal outcome and the effect on his parents to complete the story's end.

For me it was just horrific to watch and it very much felt like violence for violence sake. I didn't enjoy it, neither could I respect it as a film.

I can't remember the last time I had trouble getting through a movie. The brutality against Danny was so very hard to watch that I had to walk away from it twice. I liked Danny, and there were periods where I had to turn away because I didn't want to see what was going to happen to him next. I had a visceral reaction, alternating between sadness and anger, often within seconds. The abrupt ending was a letdown, but it's beautifully shot, the script is strong, the acting is exceptional - and I never want to lay eyes on this movie again.

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.

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.