Brilliant and touching

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Although I agree with the current overall rating, I highly disagree with most of the reviews. I wonder what movie they watched?? True gay relationships don't just happen overnight but take lots of hard work, understanding and patience and sometimes your first love, as in this movie, is the best. Although the supporting cast was acceptable and not the focus of the plot, I would be remiss if I did not congratulate the casting directors for their choices for the lead actors(Grant Davis as Ben and Davi Santos as Tim). Both performances, especially that of Davis, were outstanding given the limitations of the script. Davis has a beautiful voice and it was a joy to hear him sing as well as the actress playing Allison. Both the lead actors are gorgeous and the director deserves credit for the way the gay scenes were presented including ones with the main supporting actor Ben Baur(Jace), himself a 2017 Best Supporting Actor winner at FilmOut San Diego, and Davis. In the gay community, jealousy does exist such as was the case with Tristan Decker in the role of Bryce. His performance was integral to the final successful, though sad emotional conclusion bringing true lovers together in the end. Often our first loves are the ones that matter and are important.

SOMETHING LIKE SUMMER- 23% The story is nice, however, everything else related to the movie is absurd. The sound engineering felt like something from a Disney movie. The structure jumped from 5 years to 5 years like it was nothing. the actors did have some potential which the director did not really know how to enlighten. The cinematography is annoying, with shaky cameras in stabilized shots, and camera crane shadows in some unnecessary scenes. The screenplay was rotten cheese. I repeat, the story itself is nice. The idea focuses on sensitive subjects related to love, acceptance, and fate. However, I don't think the director knows the meaning of these three words because he sure did not know how to show it. I did feel it sometimes with the actors which I think could have done so much more if directed correctly. Story wise and execution: 1.05/3.5 Acting: 0.5/2 Camera work: 0.4/2 Sound: 0.3/2 Overall Score: 1.13/5

It may be hard to believe but I was unaware of Jay Bell's Something Like series of books before I recently came upon this movie by accident. I immediately became enamored with the actors, their acting, the music and the ability of Director David Berry's ability to capture the gut wrenching emotions of a young, gay man growing up. Grant Davis did a wonderful performance playing the roller coaster life of Ben. I have to admit I was surprised when Ben started singing and the movie cut to a stage scene where Ben is singing to a living statue of his first real love, Tim. Davis' voice was perfect for emotionally telling details of Ben's feelings. The music added a unique touch to the movie. The expression on Ben's face in the scene where he had his first kiss is incredible. The chemistry between all the characters was significant. One of the ways I judge how well I like a movie is how many times I check how much time is left in the movie. Something Like Summer captured my attention, evoked emotions in me that I didn't know I had and without me ever stopping to see how much time was left in the movie. I'm sorry I missed the West Coast premiere of the movie here in San Diego. I'm almost ashamed to say I lost track of how many times I have watched the movie. I discover new things every time. It was that good.

This movie gave me a lot of feelings and not one of them was positive. The two hours (six because I kept pausing to vent) I spent watching this were an exercise in frustration. This should not have been two hours long. It doesn't have enough substance to warrant that length.Full disclosure: my main source of irritation with this film stems from the lead character, and I'll admit that it's in large part due to the actor. None of the acting in this film is stellar but his was the weakest for me(except for act II where Tim suddenly starts talking like Mr. Darcy in P&P). Needless to say that I didn't like Ben; found him completely un-rootable. We're meant to sympathize with him, admire his courage at being out in high school while living in a conservative town, but I couldn't muster even that. This is supposed to be a story about growth, which visits the main pair at 3 different points in their lives, but while Tim did change/grow, I felt like Ben stayed the same. As the "good" one of the two, I guess that we're supposed to look at it as Tim "growing" to get to Ben's level of self-acceptance, which he did, but Ben is a flawed, inherently selfish character who could've done with considerable growth himself and unfortunately we didn't get to see that.It took me a while to put my finger on it but this felt like one of those films that's intended to be a vehicle to launch an actor's career, to show how special and talented he is. Or one of those self-indulgent ones where the director/writer also assigns himself a lead role regardless of his ability to act. Mulligans comes to mind, probably because I watched that recently. But even that guy, with his two facial expressions and monotone voice, didn't annoy me this much. I wasn't aware going in that this was also a musical so the first time Ben burst into song, I was taken aback. It was hard to take his performances seriously, however, since every time he did the scene "froze" yet you could see the other actors struggling not to move and blinking rapidly. It was very distracting. Also, while Ben/Grant can indeed sing, I wasn't fond of his voice and I don't think the songs accomplished what the director intended.Long story short, I personally would not recommend this film. By halfway through, I didn't care whether the two ended up together or not. I actually felt like Tim could do better but then I decided maybe it was best that they be together to save anyone else the misery of having to date them. The fact that someone literally had to die for them to come together in the end just cemented my dislike of the film, especially since that person was perhaps the nicest and most likable character in the film.