Chasing Summer — Sundance Review
Source: Sundance
Josephine Decker’s Chasing Summer is steeped in indie coming-of-age movie clichés and millennial nostalgia, from its throwback soundtrack to its familiar arc of reluctant homecoming. For a filmmaker once celebrated for her emotional and visual risk-taking, the film’s conventionality comes as a bit of a surprise. It’s both a romantic comedy and a coming-of-age story, yet it fails to generate much romance or laughs, and it hits all the familiar beats with far too much predictability.
Jamie (Iliza Shlesinger) is a disaster relief worker whose boyfriend (David Castañeda) breaks up with her, forcing her to return to her hometown in Texas and move back in with her parents (Megan Mullally and Jeff Perry). While she’s between jobs, she starts helping out at her sister Marissa’s (Cassidy Freeman) roller rink. There, she befriends her younger coworker, Harper (Lola Tung). Revisiting her hometown forces her to confront past traumas and failed relationships, while bonding with Harper helps her connect with the next generation and learn more about herself in the process.
The film begins with Jamie staring directly into the camera as she’s asked what she loves about her job, followed by a montage of natural disasters accompanied by the sound of orgasmic moaning. This opening is the one instance where the film truly feels like the work of Josephine Decker, evoking the impressionistic, more experimental visual style of her earlier work, particularly Madeline’s Madeline. Decker immediately follows this opening with a long take to introduce us to our protagonist. However, that’s where the experimental visuals end. From there, the film feels too safe and simple in style for a Josephine Decker film. The cinematography feels more like a made-for-television film, which is fitting because the narrative almost feels akin to a less wholesome version of a Hallmark movie.
The soundtrack features plenty of throwback needledrops to emphasize Jamie’s homecoming and trip down memory lane, from Sum 41’s “Fat Lip” to “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus. Even the narrative itself feels nostalgic. After all, the premise of a woman who uproots her life and has to return to her hometown feels all too familiar, as does the story of a woman who constantly leaves because she’s afraid of being left. Iliza Shlesinger not only stars in the film, but she also wrote the screenplay. However, her performance is stronger than her script. She’s believable as a troubled, guarded woman who recently hit rock bottom, even if her rock bottom doesn’t feel particularly catastrophic.
Despite Shlesinger’s background as a stand-up comedian, it’s Megan Mullally and Lola Tung who deliver the funniest performances in the film. But perhaps the most compelling performance is from Garrett Wareing, who plays Colby, the young man Jamie meets while out at a party with Harper, who subsequently becomes Jamie’s love interest despite their age gap. Shlesinger and Wareing have palpable chemistry and share a few steamy scenes, but it’s difficult to believe in the idea of their romance when we know how badly Jamie’s boyfriend from high school, Chase (Tom Welling), messed her up.
Chasing Summer is a romantic comedy that, unfortunately, isn’t all that romantic or funny. It features decent performances and doesn’t overstay its welcome, but the story is a bit too bland and predictable to be worthwhile. Rather than reinventing the familiar coming-of-age story beats, the film leans into them so heavily that it often feels at odds with the daring sensibilities that once defined Decker’s work. Chasing Summer is the kind of film that’s easy to watch, but just as easy to forget.
Chasing Summer premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2026.
