Infinite Summer is a film that attempts to explore and express a great deal. It’s also a movie that clearly draws inspiration from various sources, such as John Hughes’ coming-of-age stories, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, Black Mirror, The X-Files, David Cronenberg’s films, and numerous movies dealing with drug addiction, most notably Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. There’s no doubt that director Miguel Llansó poured passion into the film, using it as a vessel to explore the themes and ideas that interest him.
To its credit, the film does communicate some of these ideas in interesting and compelling ways. The best example of this can be found in the opening, which features footage of zoo animals. The film clearly aims to draw parallels between the lives of the animals in cages and the meandering, aimless existence of the characters as they spend their summer vacation.
There are moments of intelligence sprinkled throughout Infinite Summer, and had the director trimmed some excess from the script and focused on one or two themes, the result could have been something interesting, maybe even good. Unfortunately, as a wise man from Parks and Recreation once said, “never half-ass two things; whole-ass one thing,” and it seems Llansó didn’t take this advice to heart. The movie, to put it bluntly, is chaotically sporadic. Infinite Summer ends up in this awkward place where it feels like it’s both doing too much and almost nothing at the same time. That said, the fact that it even attempts to tackle so many issues, like drug addiction, arrested development, growing up, and mindfulness, is still admirable.
Unfortunately, because the film’s commentary on these themes is so vague and underdeveloped, it never feels like anything unique or substantive is being said. The movie seems to think that merely drawing attention to these ideas is enough, but since so little is actually explored or expressed, they’re quickly forgotten as soon as the film shifts to the next topic.
Additionally, beyond being thematically hollow, the film doesn’t showcase any strong filmmaking techniques or qualities. Aside from some cool-looking props, like the sleek design of the gas masks the characters wear, there’s little to praise on a technical level. The directing, cinematography, and editing don’t particularly stand out, and the film ends up looking more like a YouTube short or sketch than a professionally made production. The characters are uninteresting to watch, not only because many of the actors aren’t particularly good (aside from the one who plays Detective Jack), but also because they lack meaningful character development. The writing and dialogue in Infinite Summer feel so underdeveloped that it wouldn’t be surprising if the script used for shooting was just a first draft.
The biggest flaw of Infinite Summer is how utterly boring and unengaging it is. I’m sure there’s some deep, overarching message the director intended for the audience, but by the 45-minute mark, I was so disengaged that I couldn’t be bothered to care. It’s one thing for a film to be overly ambitious, but at the end of the day, no matter how lofty its goals, if it fails to capture my attention, it doesn’t matter what it’s trying to achieve. Instead of being a chaotic jumble of scattershot ideas, it becomes something far worse: forgettable. That’s the ultimate downfall of Infinite Summer, despite a few interesting elements, it’s an unmemorable film, one that will likely fade from my mind as quickly as the credits rolled.