Summering

The ending is a tiresome new-agey cop-out and a lot of viable ideas have gone to waste. A disappointment.

With its rare focus on girls’ friendship and growing up, 'Summering' has good intentions but that never actually makes it a good movie. Girls are owed their own 'Stand by Me,' but they deserve so much better than this.

A movie that ultimately goes nowhere, with a narrative that too obviously echoes Stand by Me and underdeveloped characters whose stories and interactions never gel.

That ethereal sort of thing could get gloopy and sentimental, but “Summering” balances the bucolic stuff with bits of acidic humor.

"Summering" is a bit of a drifter's tale itself, aiming for the kind of vibey, daydream-like feel of, say, David Robert Mitchell's "The Myth of the American Sleepover," but coming up well shy of that mark.

The nostalgia of Ponsoldt's film is curdled and rotten underneath its summery sheen.

Ponsoldt’s Summering feels a bit disjointed as the themes and narratives are all over the place, but there are so many moments between them that makes the movie worthwhile.

Summering loses its soul and never bothers to recover it.

Summering is a monotonous pseudo-mystery about four 11-year-old girls who find a dead man's body and talk and act in ways that are very unrealistic for pre-teen girls. This pointless waste of time gets more irritating as it goes along. Avoid at all costs.

Which makes it disappointing that those sincere motives aren’t turned into a more compelling film, which meanders with stiff dialogue and broad characterizations.