Summer of 85 (2020)
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Summer of 85 Movie Review
Summer of 85 is a 2020 French drama film directed by Francois Ozon. The movie is messy, though intriguing in its second half.
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“I want you to dance on my grave“
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While boating, Alexis’s boat capsizes and almost drowns before being rescued by David, who ultimately ends up as the friend of his dreams. The tumultuous relationship proceeds and ends in tragedy. There is a lot to unpack in this very polarizing movie, so let’s discuss its two halves separately as both are very disconnected from one another.
The first half I did not like at all. I do get that they depicted first teenage love and how magical that might seem, but I simply did not care for this overly fairy tale-like approach at a romance. It just didn’t seem right to me. I do get that the director wanted to focus just on these two and their romance, but for me the entire exclusion of the AIDS issue and homophobia was just unrealistic and plain foolish.
The second half was a vast improvement, though of course that suddenly extremely dark turn felt too different from everything that came before. The structure where they tell you some things that will happen worked for me as they made the first half much more intriguing and frankly more bearable while the death of David presented a lot of opportunities for the filmmakers, some which they took and others that they missed.
I was waiting for a twist that the relationship happened only in Alexis’s head, but that never came. That was unfortunate as that would explain a lot. Still, they depicted so well how brutally tragic the end of the first relationship might feel like to a teenager and all of the grave scenes were particularly effective.
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Summer of 85 also benefits from two very good turns from its main actors while all the other characters were underdeveloped. But these two are instantly believable, especially in terms of their very 80s looks in clothes and hairstyles. The movie looks polished and very charming in its seaside imagery while it is also full of sensual moments that are very appealing. But it’s clearly far from Ozon’s best works.
