Summerhood

Summerhood is a nostalgic gem that masterfully blends sharp humor with heartfelt, touching moments. Through its playful and often irreverent take on childhood adventures, it captures the innocence, mischief, and awkwardness of growing up. With witty dialogue, endearing characters, and a lighthearted tone, it offers the perfect mix of laughs and warmth, leaving you smiling, reflecting, and feeling that cozy glow of summertime memories.

I saw this at the Waterfront Film Festival in Saugatuck, Michigan.

What a wonderful film, so much fun and entertaining. It's the basic story of children at a summer camp and how they spend their time there. But the cast is just so great, it's obvious everyone was having a blast making it.

The film stars Lucian Masel as Fetus, a little kid at camp who has a crush on Sundae (Reva Timbers) one of the girls there. It focuses on Fetus and the rest of the kids from his cabin as they go through crazy antics and adventures and trying to avoid getting caught by the camp Assistant Director (Christopher McDonald in a great performance).

There were just so many fun moments throughout this film, all of the characters were great, with their hysterical names and personalities (Fetus, Reckless, Careless, Grandpa, The Raincoat Kid). And the dialogue sounds like what the kids would actually say and not like it was just written for them. Oh, and the soundtrack was just perfect, great uses of songs and perfectly placed during each of the scenes.

This film was one of the best at the festival. Actor Scott Beaudin who played Reckless was at the screening for a Q&A and he told some nice stories about the making of the film and how all of the cast had a great time working on it. I hope to see many of these young actors in future projects.

Narrated by John Cusack, Summerhood is an extremely entertaining comedy that's another wonderful addition to the summer camp comedies. Everyone should check this film out.

Canadian with rich dad and big aspirations writes, produces, directs, and stars in a Meatballs camp-hi-jinx derivative with himself in the cool counselor, i.e., Bill Murray, role. A bit raunchier and pottier-mouther than Meatballs and some of the sound quality is pretty amateur; some of the kids' lines are pretty muffled. Great soundtrack and narration by John Cusack save it from a lower rating.

Flaherty is hapless camp director and McDonald plays well his comic villain role a la Shooter McGavin. Tripper and Rudy, ah, I mean, Careless and Fetus get their respective girls. Cute but derivative. Still better than Meatballs 2, et seq.

An absolute gem of a film that perfectly captures the joy and quirks of summer camp life. Every scene feels authentic, the humor is on point, and the emotional beats hit hard. It's criminal how overlooked it is-definitely one of the best summer camp stories ever put on screen, and one I'll be rewatching for years.

This movie instantly transported me back to those long, sticky summer days of my childhood - the kind where time felt endless, friendships felt unshakable, and every adventure seemed like the most important thing in the world. The humor is goofy but genuine, the characters feel like kids you actually knew, and the little moments hit way harder than you'd expect. Honestly, it's the kind of film I find myself rewatching every now and then, just to relive that mix of innocence, chaos, and pure joy.