Hot Summer Nights

    Hot Summer Nights
    2018

    Synopsis

    A teen winds up in over his head while dealing drugs with a rebellious partner in Cape Cod, Mass.

    Your Movie Library

    Cast

    • Timothée ChalametDaniel Middleton
    • Maika MonroeMcKayla Strawberry
    • Alex RoeHunter Strawberry
    • Maia MitchellAmy Calhoun
    • Thomas JaneSergeant Calhoun
    • Emory CohenDex
    • William FichtnerShep
    • Jack KesyPonytail
    • Thomas Blake Jr.Taylor
    • Kimberly BattistaVice Principle Finney

    Recommendations

    • 91

      Consequence

      Everything is dandy until it’s not and that’s what makes Hot Summer Nights such a stirring and vivid presentation. The stakes are real. Those stakes are what elevate the film from being strictly a chewy exercise in nostalgia.
    • 58

      Entertainment Weekly

      Bynum shoots it all in high pop-pastiche style, with a near-constant barrage of neon freeze frames, slow-pan party shots, and romantic montages set to an eclectic, decade-spanning soundtrack (Tarzan Boy, David Bowie, Roxette, Suicide).
    • 50

      The Hollywood Reporter

      Visually atmospheric but tonally all over the place, Hot Summer Nights, a first feature by Elijah Bynum, has much to appreciate but ultimately possesses the sampler-platter vibe of a director’s demo reel.
    • 50

      Movie Nation

      A melodramatic and ham-fisted mashup of beachside-summer-I-came-of-age romance and birth-of-a-weed-dealer drama.
    • 50

      Rolling Stone

      The result is chaotic, but never lacking in energy – and the cast is up for anything.
    • 42

      IndieWire

      Elijah Bynum’s debut embracing every last cliche it can find in a perverse attempt to forge its own identity. It’s a noble effort that comes up empty. Instead of something original, we’re left with a sweaty pastiche that shares its protagonist’s desire to be all things to all people, only to wind up losing any sense of itself along the way.
    • 40

      Village Voice

      Elijah Bynum’s messy debut film is only bearable thanks to Chalamet’s charisma.
    • 30

      TheWrap

      The characters, the dumb dialogue, and the story mechanics are the biggest problems with “Hot Summer Nights,” which never convinces, while it uses an annoying, legend-building voiceover narration from an unseen local to keep hawking the notion that we’re seeing life-changing, mythic events.