Summering Trailer James Ponsoldt Directs Coming Of Age Film

“The Spectacular Now” and “The End of the Tour” director James Ponsoldt aims to capture in a bottle those feelings of The Last Summer of middle school before stepping onto the next phase with his film “Summering.” The film written by Ponsoldt with Benjamin Percy centers on four girls weathering harsh truths and coming of age at the end of middle school. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and next will release from Bleecker Street Films nationwide on August 12. Watch the trailer below.

The cast includes Lia Barnett, Lake Bell, Sarah Cooper, Ashley Madekwe, Madalen Mills, Megan Mullally, Eden Grace Redfield, and Sanai Victoria. Related James Ponsoldt Makes Movies for Adults, but His Kids’ Film Still Asks the Hard Questions ‘Summering’ Review: James Ponsoldt’s ‘Stand by Me’ Homage Is an Unspectacular Ode to Tween Pals Related The 15 Best Vampire Movies Ever Made Oscars 2023: Best Makeup and Hairstyling Predictions
As IndieWire previously wrote, “The girls spend time in the woods using their imaginations in a place they call Terabithia — in a nod to the classic children’s novel beloved as it is controversial for its frankness in dealing with death — where they make their own harrowing discovery that forces them to deal with the realities of the adult world, like death, suicide, homelessness, and parents’ shortcomings.” “I have three young kids and I think a lot of it was born out of conversations I was having with all of them, but especially my daughter,” Ponsoldt told IndieWire. “As I was looking for movies to show her and talking about TV shows and books I read when I was a kid, I rewound in my memory and realized when I was a kid, stories I had that were either coming-of-age stories or stories about first brushes with mortality and death — there were quite a few of them, and they always had male protagonists.” While the movie definitely aims for the sweet spot of “Stand by Me,” which centered on a group of male childhood friends, it tries to answer the question: So where are the girls?