Summerhood

An absolute gem of a film that perfectly captures the joy and quirks of summer camp life. Every scene feels authentic, the humor is on point, and the emotional beats hit hard. It's criminal how overlooked it is-definitely one of the best summer camp stories ever put on screen, and one I'll be rewatching for years.

"Summerhood" is a hilarious and relatable trip back to those awkward, unforgettable summer camp days. Packed with quirky kids, sharp humor, and just the right amount of heart, it delivers plenty of laughs while tugging at your nostalgia. Like flipping through your funniest childhood memories-only with way better one-liners.

I saw this at the Waterfront Film Festival in Saugatuck, Michigan.

What a wonderful film, so much fun and entertaining. It's the basic story of children at a summer camp and how they spend their time there. But the cast is just so great, it's obvious everyone was having a blast making it.

The film stars Lucian Masel as Fetus, a little kid at camp who has a crush on Sundae (Reva Timbers) one of the girls there. It focuses on Fetus and the rest of the kids from his cabin as they go through crazy antics and adventures and trying to avoid getting caught by the camp Assistant Director (Christopher McDonald in a great performance).

There were just so many fun moments throughout this film, all of the characters were great, with their hysterical names and personalities (Fetus, Reckless, Careless, Grandpa, The Raincoat Kid). And the dialogue sounds like what the kids would actually say and not like it was just written for them. Oh, and the soundtrack was just perfect, great uses of songs and perfectly placed during each of the scenes.

This film was one of the best at the festival. Actor Scott Beaudin who played Reckless was at the screening for a Q&A and he told some nice stories about the making of the film and how all of the cast had a great time working on it. I hope to see many of these young actors in future projects.

Narrated by John Cusack, Summerhood is an extremely entertaining comedy that's another wonderful addition to the summer camp comedies. Everyone should check this film out.

Canadian with rich dad and big aspirations writes, produces, directs, and stars in a Meatballs camp-hi-jinx derivative with himself in the cool counselor, i.e., Bill Murray, role. A bit raunchier and pottier-mouther than Meatballs and some of the sound quality is pretty amateur; some of the kids' lines are pretty muffled. Great soundtrack and narration by John Cusack save it from a lower rating.

Flaherty is hapless camp director and McDonald plays well his comic villain role a la Shooter McGavin. Tripper and Rudy, ah, I mean, Careless and Fetus get their respective girls. Cute but derivative. Still better than Meatballs 2, et seq.

Someone wrote a review stating it's about four best friends that hate each other, this simply isn't the case and I think this person has forgotten their childhood.

This movie was very well written and even better directed.

The actors (especially the kids)did a wonderful job of recreating that feeling you only get as a child.

Kids are quite literally 'innocence personified' and this movie captures that very well, I recall my childhood and I regret trying to grow up too fast. I watched this movie and it took me right back to the first time I held a girls hand, my first kiss etc, and learning the terminology of (mostly cruel)sayings that eventually help us grow.

I'm not a child of the 80's rather a child of the 70's but there is still enough child left in me to grab this movie with both hands and become completely involved with it and remember all those years ago when the seed of things that make us who we are today was planted.

Summer camp when I was a kid was not overseen by older kids (our peers) if you will, and I think this movie touched on that whole generation gap feeling you have when you're little and someone only five years older seems old and wise, these 'watchers' were not discouraging these kids to do what they wanted, rather they advised the kids and that's how it was for me, the ever so 'older and wiser' offering me advice that was of course for the most part naive and or made up.

I'm not going to ruin this movie for others by including a spoiler, this is a movie to sit with your wife and kids, and your parents and watch their faces twinge as they too recall those little awkward moments.

I truly loved this movie and although I watched this on my own, you can make book I will watch it again with my now adult children to see their reactions.

Musical score is brilliant as is the narration by John Cusack, he has a great voice for this movies narration.

There are a couple of reasons I didn't score a 10 on this film, but I'm sure those who view will know why I didn't go the extra couple of yards.

All in all a great movie that for me only brought back fond memories of my misspent youth. Loved it. 8/10