Summer

2008 GB Kenneth Glenaan
✰✰ 1/2

Story of two life-long friends, friendship cemented by an accident that left one crippled. Told in the kind of split-time, parallel narratives writers can't help indulging in. As both past and present unfold over Summers, climaxes converge. But, surprise: film doesn't play "the accident" as an emotional trump card, there's no [sick] thrill from "finally" seeing the character shattered. It doesn't happen after a 10-minute police chase, on a cliff, with musical strings swelling. I like that. The style is also quite nice throughout. A bit too polished, maybe; but certainly adventurous enough you're glad some other filmmaker didn't make it. Time gets stuck in a few places, the past invades the present, signaling its permanence. Robert Carlyle tries too hard in the main role. Bottom line: for a film dealing with disabilities, death, tragedy—there are many, and most are manipulative trash—I felt real emotions.

Somers Town

2008 GB Shane Meadows
✰✰✰

Polish immigrant meets British rascal, make friendship, share an older, French first-love. Meadows channels simplicity and the taste of Jules et Jim. Characters are deeper than appear, story is not; could have been a Eurostar (financier) commercial, but isn't. Good tone, teases against sinister expectations. Bad montages, especially at the end, in colour. Slight only on the surface. Hemingway's iceberg floats down below.