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Hot Summer Nights

Melodramatic mashup

A callow but math-smart young fellow (Timothee Chalamet) conspires with the local teen rebel (Alex Roe) in 1991 Cape Cod to sell pot to vacationers, falls in love with said rebel’s sister (Maika Monroe), and makes a lot of money before realizing he’s in over his head, you know, mafia-wise.  This one starts off as a clever and slyly amusing take on the old coming-of-age, summer-antics chestnut. Then it kind of self-destructs as the flashy film school tricks, incoherent, eye-rollingly dumb script, sloppy editing and a lack of direction cause it to morph into maudlin melodrama. Waste of time. (107 min)

Don Morton

Don Morton has viewed some 6,000 movies, frequently awake. A bachelor and avid cyclist, he currently divides his time between Tokyo and a high-tech 4WD super-camper somewhere in North America.