SUMMER OF 69 Review

Have you ever put off watching a movie longer than you probably should have?

It was over a month ago at this point that I initially saw Summer Of 69 floating around Hulu as a potential viewing option. I pondered it, considered it, but ultimately discarded it in favor of something else.

And since then, at least two or three times, I would be scouring the streaming services for something to watch, and there on Hulu again would be Summer Of 69. It looked funny and had a short runtime, but again, multiple times, I ended up going in a different direction.

Finally, this week, I decided to bite the bullet and see the film that it felt like had been just over my shoulder for more than a month. It just seemed to promise such an easy, enjoyable watch! And after being let down a few times by other streaming options, I knew I really needed that.

Summer of 69 is the story of Abby, a nearly-18 high school senior who is about to graduate. She has harbored a crush on classmate Max since she met him in elementary school, but Max has been tied down in a relationship to Mercedes. While getting an ice cream at the shop at which Max works, she finds out the pair have broken up. Abby knows that this is her time to strike.

Relying on insider information from the school's masco, Bernie, Abby finds out that Max is obsessed with 69, the much ballyhooed sexual position. Abby wants to be able to seduce and please the target of her affections, but she is extremely sheltered and naive.

So she decides to pay a stripper she happens upon named Santa Monica to teach her the ways of sex and pleasure. Santa Monica is obviously reluctant at first, but upon finding out the club in which she dances needs $20,000 to keep the doors open, she gets desperate enough to accept Abby's offer.

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ Abby (Sam Morelos) and Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman) are a charming tandem, and they are easy to root for as you get through the movie. Their relationship starts off as strained and very much transactional, but their friendship blossoms in a natural and fluid way. It's all extremely heartwarming to see their every interaction. I was entirely engaged in their interactions, and the movie had me hooked on both of them from the early going.

Abby is the more singular star of the movie, at least in so much as we see more of her at the beginning of Summer Of 69 before Santa Monica gets introduced and brought into there plot in the middle of the first act. Morelos is fantastic as Abby with or without Fineman's presence. She has a naïveté that might be a touch unbelievable for a teenager in 2025, but it's endearing nonetheless. Aside from that, she is witty and has a few fun character quirks, like the strange fantasies she sometimes finds herself slipping into.

Santa Monica is the 1B to Abby's 1A as far as heavy lifting goes here, but once she gets involved, she is well focused upon. Her struggle (wanting to save her job) is a little more imperative and important than Abby's (wanting to get a guy by 69-ing him). Fineman plays her as vulnerable and guarded, but she slowly eases her defenses around Abby, and as I noted above, they become a power pair as the film progresses.

+ I've been a fan of the recent trend towards woman-inspired sex comedies, turning the genre that was so hot and popular, but always male-oriented, on its head. This is another one of those, with Abby driving the desire for teenage sex. And not just sex, but a particular sex act; the funny numbered one.

I'm a fan of any kind of cinematic progress we make as a society, and taking this genre and making it about female empowerment and self-actualization rather than about girls as a prize to be won is a definite plus in my book. At the very least, it's a different twist on a same old formula, and that's always good to see.

- Not that you necessarily want to see these characters fail by any stretch, but the flick has a perfectly wrapped up happy ending that feels a little too neat. Everything comes up aces for our pair, and it's a touch unrealistic and idealistic. I'm not sure what a better ending for the film might have been, but the one we get had me feeling saccharine sweet.

The love story aspect is whatever here; I don't mind seeing whether or not two characters get together, though the Max character is undercooked enough that I wasn't dying to care what came of him. But the other aspect sees Santa Monica need the money to keep her strip club open, and I always feel that when a movie magically rescues someone in financial woes, or provides a miraculous benefactor, that it's a bit insulting. People in real life have financial insecurity and career struggles, and it's not always so easy to get out of as the motion picture business would have you believe. So for that reason, endings like what we see here always make me just a hair uncomfortable. It's a simple loss of relatability.

- I would never complain to see more Charlie Day, who only gets two scenes across the entire picture. He's not a huge focal point, but his presence drives Santa Monica's plot forward. And he's a hell of a comedic actor! So if Summer Of 69 had felt like giving us a few more scenes with him, that would only have made things better.

I'm overall extremely glad I finally checked out Summer Of 69. It's an adorably cute movie about a relatively vulgar subject matter, sure, but it all feels natural. The leads are absolutely a joy to watch perform their roles, and the story has some real heart to it.

🍿 SCORE = 71 / 100