Carlitos Ruiz-Ruiz’s Tribeca Festival entry is a coming-of-age story that explores the fateful summer of three friends.
Traversing Puerto Rico’s paradisal landscape, its vibrant nights and Caribbean beauty, Carlitos Ruiz-Ruiz uses his native land as a character in his new film, Summer of Three. Dotted with flags, dripping with the sunlit hues of the tropical island, this coming-of-age tale feels like a re-introduction to Puerto Rico, through the eyes of a character returning to his homeland.
Javi, a morose Puerto-Rican-American teenager, is reluctant to go back to his family after the death of his grandfather, and feels trapped in the suffocating heat and chaos of the house where his father once killed himself. With no memory of and almost complete indifference to his surroundings and family, Javi struggles to connect with his feelings of grief and his sense of identity. When he meets the charismatic and rather brazen Luife, the visit picks up, shifting from boring to something more vivid. Javi is soon pulled into the orbit of Luife and his beautiful lover, Kiki, and an intoxicating summer ensues for the three of them.
Caught in a love triangle and the kind of codependency that develops over a summer stay, Javi begins to reconnect with himself and his surroundings in this tale of teenage excitement, complicated by crushing loss.
This film marks Ruiz’s return to Tribeca, following the success of his debut feature Maldeamores (executive produced by Benicio Del Toro and starring Luis Guzmán), which premiered at the festival in 2007. Nineteen years later, his newest feature has been co-written by his own son, Marcel Ruiz, who plays Javi. “The continued global rise of Puerto Rican culture and cinema comes from a collective impulse to carry the island with us—wherever we go, whatever we create,” Marcel writes in his artistic statement, framing this picture as a love letter to the island he spent so many summers on.
This personal element flows from the story and script, which feels very grounded in lived experience and memory. The giddiness and volatility of young romance and friendship come across authentically, and it feels like an immersive snapshot of summer that one can relate to, ‘new yet familiar’ as Ruiz describes it. Composed of warm, shimmering shots of the scenery and life in Puerto Rico, set to a soundtrack of homegrown reggaeton and indie, Summer of Three is an engrossing portrait of youth and the season.
The film’s second half, though incredibly moving, dies out quickly, leaving you begging for a little bit more once the climax comes. The electrifying dynamic between the three friends, which is abruptly severed, is missed as soon as it is gone, with much of that emotional weight resting on the performances themselves. Paolo Jose Schoene shines as Luife, embodying the man’s animalistic yet caring nature, while Kiki Montilla, as Kiki, leads a nuanced portrayal of innocence and wisdom. Loss and grief begin as a lingering presence in the story and, as the story progresses, grow into an overwhelming force, reflecting Javi’s journey and rupturing the indifference that is clear at the beginning.
With warmth and energy, steeped in sadness, Summer of Three portrays a coming-of-age story that brings a man out of innocence in several ways, connecting him with his roots and his feelings. It serves as a reminder that, like the season, these moments can be beautiful, all-encompassing, but fleeting.
Follow Us