For most independent filmmakers, winning any prize at the Sundance Film Festival on a first feature would be a dream come true. But Alessandra Lacorazza took things a step further on her directorial debut “In the Summers,” winning both the U.S. Grand Prize and the Directing Prize at the 2024 edition of the festival.
The semi-autobiographical film stars Puerto Rican rapper Residente as a divorced father who spends his summers with his two daughters in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The daughters are recast multiple times throughout the film, illustrating how they change over the years while the film remains in a single setting.
“In the Summers” earned largely positive reviews following its Sundance bow, with many critics singling out Lacorazza’s sensitive directorial touch and praising the film’s fragmented narrative structure as an effective storytelling device that allowed it to juxtapose change and consistency.
“The film, which won this year’s U.S. Grand Prize in dramatic competition, is a delicate portrait of emotionally fraught relationships between family members who mostly have great physical distance between them,” Esther Zuckerman wrote in her IndieWire review of the film. “Lacorazza tells the story in four parts, switching out actors playing Violeta and Eva as years pass and the summers progress. We never are offered a glimpse of their lives outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico, where Vincente lives far from their mother in California. At times those missing details can make the film feel elusive, but ultimately the snapshot quality is effective. By the time we leave these characters we come to know all their love and resentment.”
The review continued, “Each section is introduced with a tableau of a shrine consisting of mementos from the trips. The beautifully composed still lifes are indicative of how Lacorazza approaches nearly every scene. Lacorazza fills the frames with delicate moments that deepen the audience’s understanding of these people as they try to pass the time on hot summer days. While switching actors multiple times throughout a project has been an incredibly successful tool — take for instance ‘Moonlight,’ to which ‘In the Summers’ owes a lot — it has the chance to come off as gimmicky. Thankfully, here all the performers find wonderful echoes of one another and the transitions are never jarring.”
“In the Summers” is written and directed by Alessandra Lacorazza. The film stars Residente, Sasha Calle, Lio Mehiel, Dreya Castillo, Luciana Elisa Quinonez, Kimaya Thais, Allison Salinas, Emma Ramos, Leslie Grace, and Sharlene Cruz.
Music Box Films will release “In the Summers” in theaters on Friday, September 20. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.
