Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Carlitos Ruiz-Ruiz
Starring: Marcel Ruiz, Paolo Schoene, Kiki Montilla
When you're a teenager there is something exciting about having older friends who have already crossed the threshold into adulthood. When I worked summer jobs I was always drawn more to my adult co-workers than to those closer to my own age. They had already hit that magical number of 18 that allowed them to do all the fun things in life, and they would often impart nuggets of wisdom that were probably nonsense but which seemed profound to my unformed brain.
Carlitos Ruiz-Ruiz's Summer of Three captures the thrill of being befriended by young adults when you're at that frustrating stage in life where you're still considered a child but you no longer feel like one. The Puerto-Rican writer/director has drawn on his own experiences of moving to Los Angeles in his youth and later spending summers on his island homeland. He has cast his son Marcel Ruiz (who also co-writes with his father and Mariana S. Belaval) in the lead role of Javi, something of a screen surrogate for the director.
Having moved to Los Angeles with his mother following his father's suicide as a child, Javi returns to Puerto Rico for his grandfather's funeral. He is to stay for three weeks, but Javi initially wants to return much sooner. His childhood home, still inhabited by his grandmother and an uncle, brings back traumatic memories. His bedroom is as he left it, complete with a framed photo of Javi and his father, which he immediately turns over.
Javi changes his mind on leaving when he is befriended by Luife (Paolo Jose Schoene), a wired and wiry young drug dealer, and more importantly when he meets Luife's beautiful girlfriend Kiki (Kiki Montilla). The three become fast friends, exploring the island together and attending parties. Luife and Kiki are in an open relationship, though Luife seems to be the only party taking advantage of this situation. Kiki begins flirting with Javi, and a kiss is shared, leading to confusion for the young visitor. Does Kiki have genuine affection for him or is this simply her way of exorcising her frustrations with the unfaithful Luife?
Any accusations of nepotistic casting are quickly dispelled by Marcel's performance, which recalls the mix of wide-eyed wonder and confusion portrayed by Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name. He is a gripping screen presence, and while Javi is largely shy and reserved (certainly compared to his free-living new buddies), the young actor ensures he is also charismatic. We can see why Luife is drawn to taking him under his wing like a little brother, and why Kiki might be attracted to him.
There is an infectious energy to Ruiz-Ruiz's filmmaking, which pulls us into this story like an enthusiastic girl dragging you onto a dancefloor. It will have adult audiences thinking back to that one memorable teenage summer that defined our youths, and maybe make us wonder what happened to those people with whom we were briefly friends. Javi's friendship with Kiki and Luife is the sort of intense, emotionally honest relationship you can only have with those you presume you will never see again. In their presence, Javi is freer than ever. But while he is set to return home to a life of certainty and security, Kiki and Luife are stuck on the island.
Though it serves as a great showcase for the natural beauty of Puerto Rico and its vibrant culture, Summer of Three doesn't sugar coat its social issues. There are tense moments in which Luife's machismo threatens to get him in the sort of trouble you can't easily get out of. For Javi, this pair of free spirits represent a life he could never live back home, but in the final act he realises that despite their sunny facades, Kiki and Luife live a troubled existence. To quote Johnny Rotten, he is enjoying a cheap holiday in other people's misery.
