It’s good to give back. Jillian Bell is a veteran of the coming of age movie. In all forms too; she ascended from the heat check supporting character to the lead of an indie dramedy. And now she gets behind the camera, passing on what she’s learned to 2 new leading ladies. Hopefully Sam Morelos and Chloe Fineman will find a way to pay it forward when they get their chance.
This isn’t the Bryan Adams song, or 1969 summertime. Nope, this is quite literally going to be Abby Flores’s (Sam Morelos) summer of 69. Through the high school mascot gossip train, she hears her crush Max Warren (Matt Cornett) is now single…and his favorite sexual activity is 69ing. Excited but desperate and horrified, Abby spots Diamond Dolls strip club, wandering in just as Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman) is giving Abby her first sexy lesson on the stripper pole. Abby jumps at the opportunity, agreeing to pay Santa Monica her car savings money (~$20k), precisely the amount Santa Monica needs to get club owner Betty (Paula Pell) out of her hefty debts.
For a movie with a very complicated sex position in the title, Summer of 69’s humor is much smarter than the 15 year olds it’s targeting with its title. Jillian Bell’s script has a wonderful smorgasbord of jokes to keep things interesting. There’s a few great runners in here, especially with how bad everyone in a strip club is with money. Cameos abound, as well as great actors in heat check side parts. The trio of Paula Pell, Liza Koshy, and Nicole Byer and their chemistry with Chloe Fineman made me wish for the Diamond Dolls workplace comedy, expertly carrying two conversations at once in that great way that has your eyes darting back and forth wondering what’s gonna happen next. Juxtaposing that is Sam Morelos and her escapades at a Christian high school, awkward comedy at its finest, with wonderfully specific ideas like the power of a mascot. And at the center is the mismatched buddy comedy, tale as old as time. Chloe Fineman proves she’s not just a sketch performer: she’s geared up to be ready for this. If anything, the raunchy comedy is actually underrepresented here, moreso mining jokes at the ill prepared high schoolers and their exaggerated understanding of what various sex acts are.
But the surprise of Summer of 69 is how well it catches your feelings when you’re just trying to have a 90 minute fling. Santa Monica and Abby are both shouting into their own little voids at the beginning of the film, trapped in their delusions of grandeur, but very much fearing the consequences of revealing their real selves to people whose opinions they care about. Each eventually finds with the other the real thing they want: a friend. Friends help each other out of their shells, holding their hands while they brace for a new challenge, ready to comfort them if they fail. Bell’s best example of this is when Abby realizes some of the real dangers of Santa Monica’s job, leading to a wonderful friendship montage and real character changes for Santa Monica, slowly revealing more of herself to Abby, who put herself on the line for Santa Monica when no one else would have. All done with jokes aplenty, until you slowly find yourself quietly going “oh no” or “don’t do that” when the third act plot kicks in.
Looks like you’re in a relationship with Summer of 69. No more “u up?” texts for these ladies. You have to take them on real dates, and care about them because they cared about you on the couch on that lonely night awake. Except Paula Pell. She’s ready to hit it and quit it, fo realz.