“Griffin in Summer” (2024) begins at the Borwood Spring Talent show with fourteen year old Griffin Nafly (Everett Blunck) playing the husband and wife in a scene from his latest play, “Regrets of Autumn,” which he describes as a cross between “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (1966) and “American Beauty” (1999), in front an auditorium filled with his peers. As usual, Griffin wants his summer to be spent working on production while his friends are less committed than usual because they are doing normal teen activities like dating, partying and other age-appropriate activities. He treats Helen (goddess Melanie Lynskey), like a (subordinate) professional colleague, not his mother. When she hires Brad Rizzo (Owen Teague), to pick up the slack and do chores around the house, Griffin finds him distracting from his work, but begins to appreciate that distraction when he finds out that Brad lived in New York, specifically Bushwick, is also an artist and has a body that leads to Griffin having a sexual awakening. Do you really want to see another coming-of-age story? Yes, yes you do. It is the best movie coming out this week and maybe one of the best movies of the year.
Director and writer Nicholas Colia comes out of the gate strong with this perfect feature debut and editors Jon Higgins and Sam Levy really understood the assignment: be funny and real. You will start laughing from the start. Griffin is an intense, focused and driven kid, but his friends do not seem to mind his high standards, withering looks and cutting recriminations. Movies like “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” (2025) evoke the theater kid while Griffin IS the theater kid with all the flaws and fabulousness that will be familiar to anyone who has known one or is one. It has not even occurred to him that there is a life outside of work and any obstacle, human or inanimate, is an enemy of the state. He often treats people more like tools, which is why Colia does not even show Brad’s face until Griffin notices him.
While Griffin is the protagonist, Colia does not hold back with everyone else. By showing what is going on all around Griffin, it is a hilarious way to contrast his personality, treat other characters like people with lives outside of Griffin and show his self-absorbedness. His home life is falling apart, which is undoubtedly the inspiration for his play. As Griffin’s mom tries to redirect Griffin’s energy but is also realizing that she is in the middle of a crisis, Lynskey shows that it is unnecessary to go big to get laughs. Instead while her character’s life is devolving, she plays it straight. Abby Ryder Fortson as Kara Pointer, Griffin’s best friend and director, nails the manner of the executive assistant who knows how to deal with a high maintenance boss and the common folk, which includes their friends: science nerd/self-proclaimed partier, Tyler Smoot-Rigsby (Gordon Rocks), who plays the husband in “Autumn,” Winnie Hernandez (Johanna Colón), who plays the wife in “Autumn,” and the loyal friend with a close family Pam Vanderworm (Alivia Bellamy). They got used to hanging out apart from him because of humorless ways, and he is only noticing and caring thanks to Instagram.
The intergenerational relationship between Brad and Griffin is a hilarious odd couple pairing doomed to fail. They begin to see each other as peers when they connect through their stage craft and find in each other an audience who finally appreciates their vision and brilliance. Turns out that Brad is an avant garde performance artist, and the scene when Brad shows Griffin his work feels like a documentary. It is a true story for any reative showing their work to someone new. Colia composes the scene with Brad retreating to the edge of the room and keeps Griffin in the foreground while watching Brad’s work, “Inanus Corona,” on Vimeo. When he is done, and Colia cuts back to them, Brad is suddenly beside Griffin with his head cut off. They are both intense, which is the biggest surprise because Brad normally has more in common with Pete Davidson’s “Saturday Night Live” character, the one word responding Chad. Griffin escalates ways to keep Brad’s attention, and Brad is oblivious to Griffin’s enormous crush. The best one is an invite for Brad to participate in “August,” and it is the most unhinged, sidesplitting scene. It is the most obvious sign that Helen is too busy putting out fires to completely miss any of their shared shenanigans.
Being a theater kid is embarrassing because they wear their big emotions on their sleeves without realizing that they are acting in socially inappropriate ways and not all their ideas are good ones. Without all the messiness, they would not grow, and the work would not come. Brad is just an older, hetero version of Griffin, which Griffin does not realize it, but viewers get a glimpse when Griffin visits Brad’s house. Brad is a sullen jerk to his pleasant, cheery, unfazed mom (Francine Berk), who just accepts him. For the first time, Griffin learns to become accommodating and provides offerings like whisky or “cold cuts and soft cheeses” (you had me at cold cuts) to Brad as if he is a household god. Even when he wavers and thinks Brad’s ideas are odd, he goes with it because of Brad’s passion and experience. While he may not realize that his friends are providing the same kindness and creative freedom to Griffin, it is a step towards helping him loosen his grip on trying to control others, appreciate what they have to offer and a willingness to collaborate instead of dictate.
The main tension, which could have turned into a horror movie, but does not, is what will a heterosexual young man do when he realizes a young boy has a crush on him. Griffin’s sexuality just exists mostly because his chosen pastime makes it a given and the fact that he has not acted on it has not made it an issue. Eventually his gayness comes to the forefront, and rest assured that nothing bad happens to him—no slurs, no violence, but there is rejection. In this world, it could have been worse. “Griffin in Summer” just makes it a natural part of adolescence and even sows seeds of hope. It is the beginning of Griffin’s story, and he is already off to a better, more mature start than Brad, who is still stuck navel gazing,
It would be a crime if this review did not mention Kathryn Newton, who appears as Brad’s heavy-accented girlfriend, Chloe. Whether her accent is an accurate depiction of Virginia locals (it sounded somewhere in between New England and New York, but what do I know), Newton is always a bright, quality comedic addition to any film. Chloe is a great character because she finds the balance of treating him in off-colored age-appropriate ways then recalibrating when he indicates that she is speaking beneath him. Unlike Brad, she fully directs her attention to Griffin when he is speaking though she too misses his crush on her boyfriend. If “Griffin in Summer” made a mistake, it was not including the scene when Chloe introduces Griffin to her Uncle Joey (Fred Bryant Sr.). That would have been gold. Hint: she is a huge supporter of the arts.
If Blunck and Colia are this good early in their careers, then the future is bright. “Griffin in Summer” proves that kids can take center stage and speak to everyone about the growing pains that do not stop at adulthood. This film is a must see for comedy and indie movie lovers.
