The theme of this movie is an evergreen one: Growing up is hard to do.
The story is about a young woman whose father has died, whose writer mother is on a book tour and who is stuck at her grandparents’ house during an eventful summer when she takes up with some neighborhood Goths.
As the trailer indicates, the film Goths are teenagers who wear black clothes and listen to death rock, not the guys who sacked Rome almost 2,000 years ago.
The release was years in the making and was filmed in Portland, Oregon, the city where I grew up. Its star is a young woman whom I know and like. I am not going to discuss the film because our friendship might interfere with my objectivity. And, yes, yes, the notion of objectivity in published reports has become quaint, like a 20th-century artifact — similar, perhaps, to the Lawrence Welk program my grandparents used to enjoy.
(I will say this much: Part of a scene from the film was released to friends and family a couple years ago. It was set in a graveyard at midnight, which sounds neo-Gothic, but the lighting was pretty awkward. If I were the cinematographer, I’d have done the shoot under a bright-but-ominous full moon. To be fair, however, Portland’s cloudy, wet climate would frustrate that goal just about every month of the year.)
Personally, I thought the Goth trend ended sometime in 2000 or so, but I was wrong. When I looked on the internet just now, I found an offbeat advice column that ran a letter in 2019 from a distraught mother who wrote Help! My Daughter Is Becoming a Goth!
Going Goth still may be a way, safer than many, to declare your autonomy at a time when you are an adolescent and need to scratch that itch.
Make of this what you will. My Summer as a Goth is now streaming on Amazon and other online services.
Note
The Id is not reviewing this movie and so would appreciate reactions from others who have seen it. How did you like the plot, the acting or the setting? Was the ending satisfying?
Please add your thoughts in the comments section below. These will be helpful to other readers who are considering whether to watch the movie.
theidiosyncratist 