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reneethorpe
Reviews
Summer of 8 (2016)
Tries to Be Deep But Isn't
They came to talk... 8 teenaged friends gather on the beach for one last party before going separate ways (college). Characters are two dimensional and the script won't draw any of them in a sympathetic light. Conversations and personal concerns, meant to be heartrending and deep, are kinda almost similar to what bright kids talk about, but don't take the extra step of being remotely interesting.
Baby It's You (1983)
Great Writing Evokes 60's Clash of Cultures
Although I would have thought that this coming-of-age story had universal truths, I see enough negative comments that perhaps you've got to be a Baby-Boomer to love this film.
The dialog is spot-on, and the lead characters beautifully personify pre-Kennedy assassination America... an innocence that comes into conflict with the hippie-era political activism, drug exploration, and general upheaval of middle American values. There are actually so many interesting layers to this film, though, I can hardly go into all of them here.
Highly sensitive acting by all, one of Sayles' best.