From the opening scene to the last, there’s a whole lot to love in Nicholas Colia’s feature directorial debut. Griffin in Summer is a heartwarming and honest portrait of a tentative desire, excitement and the disappointment of an unrequited crush as Colia beautifully explores the first steps all gay kids take long before they utter the word “gay” to anyone.
Do you remember your first crush? Whether it was a celebrity, school friend, neighbour, or a random person you had never talked to, it was a feeling of excitement, fear, and uncertainty. When you saw that person, you were overwhelmed by an explosion of new emotions, ranging from desire to jealousy and longing. In your mind, you built a secret life with that person, one that nobody else was privy to. For gay young people, that first crush can be even more challenging and frequently involves someone quite a bit older and more confident than they are. As they attempt to navigate new feelings, questions surround their obsession: How do I know if they are like me? What will happen if I tell them my secret? Will the world suddenly end if they reject me? The age gap doesn’t matter, right?
Fourteen-year-old Griffin (Everett Blunck), an enthusiastic young playwright who writes Tennessee Williams-inspired melodramas far beyond his tender age, is about to face those very questions as a mysterious young man becomes his every waking thought during a summer when his quiet suburban world suddenly and sharply changes.
Griffin, played brilliantly by Blunck, has always been an outsider. He is a boy with the body of a fourteen-year-old and the mind of a forty-year-old, a driven playwright who yearns for his Broadway debut. He has a small group of friends, Kara (Abby Ryder Fortson), Tyler (Gordon Rocks), Pam (Alivia Bellamy) and Winnie (Johanna Colón), all of whom he regularly treats like shit because while he passionately believes in artistic perfection they make potato clocks, kiss their boyfriends and attend, what he considers to be pointless summer camps.
Griffin’s dad is never home and is evidently having an affair, and his loving mum, who he always refers to as Helen (Melanie Lynskey), has a mind that is clearly and understandably elsewhere. But despite the family problems that clearly act as inspiration for each new play he writes, Griffin believes that this summer is going to be the best yet, as he plans a theatre epic titled “Regrets of Autumn,” a play that will finally get him noticed on Broadway and mark his arrival in the arts world.
However, that’s all about to change when Helen hires bad-boy performance artist Brad (Owen Teague) to do some handy work around the house. Brad is mysterious, toned, volatile, and a bit dangerous. He is an alluring James Dean to Griffin’s Truman Capote, and, to add icing to the cake, he lives in New York and has just come home to make some money. But a first gay crush is always tricky to navigate, especially when trying to put on a play that will shoot you to stardom.
Nicholas Colia’s feature directorial debut weaves the classic gay coming-of-age journey with a heartwarming, honest, and hilarious portrait of a highly strung boy’s first crush, which upends his sense of reality, safety, and security as his hormones take control. There are moments of brilliance as Colia explores the power of that first hormonal rush and the extent to which young people attempt to get what they want without understanding the emotions attached. Whether it’s Griffin quickly working out that whisky might be the route to Brad’s heart by raiding his dad’s liquor cabinet or the moment his young heart sinks when he realises Brad has a girlfriend, only to devise a ruthless way to get rid of her, there is a raw honesty in the lengths Griffin will go to to get his man, even though deep down he knows its a fantasy.
Equally assured is Colia’s exploration of Griffin’s uncertainty and vulnerability in his decisions, as he acts in the heat of the moment rather than considering what he knows to be sensible or safe. Here, Everett Blunck’s performance is nothing short of outstanding, as he captures the complexity and urgency of the problematic first emotions and feelings we experience on the journey to adulthood.
But this coming-of-age journey isn’t just about Griffin. It also relates to Teague’s wild, alcohol-fuelled Brad, a young man who has never entirely escaped the trappings of his bad-boy image and never truly believed in his artistic abilities. Oblivious to Griffin’s feelings, the pair open a new world for each other, strengthening their own creative drive in different ways. Brad grows in confidence through Griffin, and Griffin learns the pitfalls and complexities of an unrequited crush through Brad.
Colia’s assured feature debut transcends some of the usual coming-out, coming-of-age clichés as it explores the urgent, confusing and exciting step we all take long before coming out, the one where you realise you want something different to your friends, something that comes with far more questions than answers as you navigate the heterosexual world around you. From the opening scene to the last, there’s a whole lot to love in Colia’s feature directorial debut. Griffin in Summer is a heartwarming and honest portrait of a tentative desire, excitement and the disappointment of an unrequited crush as Colia beautifully explores the first steps all gay kids take long before they utter the word “gay” to anyone.
Griffin in Summer is showing in theatres across the United States from August 29.
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