Stories about a group of people spending their last summer as highschoolers, enjoying their youthful freedom before engaging at a new phase of adulthood.
Superhero movies are the hot topics of the big screen right now, harboring a continuous success from all walks of life worldwide.
While casual moviegoers and hardcore fans both enjoy these massive cultural cinematic events, on the other side of the fence, there is Netflix, who by the years are expanding their portfolio with these teen rom-coms, mostly targeting a specific age group and sometimes hang on the borders of hit-or-miss territory.
From the likes of
Sex Education to
To All The Boys I've Loved Before, these Netflix shows not only dabble the hurdles and awkwardness of our teenage years but also representative of our simple and yet complicated journey to maturity — a coming-of-age lovestruck tale.
True to its premise, Netflix's The Last Summer represents some of that core aspect because for the most part, this film feels like a glorified Hollywood version of our yesteryears.
The Last Summer revovles around a group of people who have separate storylines of how they will spend their remaining days before entering college.
From the likes of
Riverdale's KJ Apa to
The Fosters' Maia Mitchell, this latest entry to the rom-com genre will sure be an instant hit by just the star factor alone because let's be honest, everyone is tired of these plots so the best thing to do is to hire the next sugar idols into the forefront and sell these cupcake narratives while it's hot.
The Last Summer's tangential stories are cute and all for the context of the film but it's not all believable. For one, there is Halston Sage and Jason Latimore's breakup plot which doesn't really work because it feels forced and doesn't garner any emotional impact or chemistry.
The film never really showed the effect of that problem on their lives. Rather, they resort to the lazy route of lumping in these exposition dumps so the story could go forward.
Really, the only plot (besides Apa and Mitchell's) that's interesting to follow through is Jacob McCarthy and Mario Quinonez Jr.'s sideplot. As silly as it is, their small part in the movie exudes comedic charm and is a welcome mix to the overall cheesy generation z centric storytelling.
Besides that, there isn't much that this film had offered to quench our thirst for actually good romantic comedy movie (if there is any at least). The acting is at least passable and the score isn't bad but I thought never really gave you a
Remember Me This Way moment from 1995's
Casper.
Let's Be Reel
KJ Apa among others gave their best to at least make this thing work. His delightful masculinity paired with Maia Mitchell's every cute girl charm is the heart and soul of this overall niche teenage drama.
With a wide array of hardcore and intellectual adult series and films, Netflix has also became the haven of easy-to-absorb pass time movies lately and while some of them are undiscovered gems, some are actually flat and underwhelming.
The Last Summer belongs to the latter.
5.5/10
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