A tense, thoughtfully explored coming-of-age tale set on the outskirts of Mexico City, Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson’s debut erupts with a lush visual palette and a memorable ensemble.
“But the child must grow,” writes German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm in his seminal 1956 book “The Art of Loving,” discussing a necessary transition in the relationship between a mother and her progeny. “The very essence of motherly love is to care for the child’s growth, and that means to want the child’s separation from herself.”
In Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson’s delicately complex feature debut “Summer White,” Valeria and her lonesome 13-year-old son Rodrigo seem way overdue for the kind of crucial disjointing Fromm prescribes. Exploring their thorny chapter of parting that eventually arrives — seen from the possessive offspring’s point of view with both caution and empathy — Patterson dances around tricky Freudian themes with nerve and grace, gradually approaching something astute about the boundaries and boundlessness of maternal affection.
Related Stories
VIP+New Live Music Data Suggests Cautious Optimism
Kamala Harris Watches Maya Rudolph's 'SNL' Impression, Praises the Mannerisms: 'She's So Good!'
Though it gets weighed down by a trace of experimental aimlessness, a languid pace that limits the film’s theatrical prospects, “Summer White” should still appeal to patient art-house crowds, thanks to its deliberate slow-burn tension pitched amid the cracks of Valeria (Sophie Alexander–Katz) and Rodrigo’s (Adrián Rossi) intimate existence. Before the time comes to cut the duo’s metaphorical umbilical cord, Patterson is quick to establish their harmonious closeness, teetering on an uncomfortably precarious line in a purlieu of Mexico City.
Popular on Variety
Right at the start, Rodrigo climbs onto his mom’s bed and into her arms for a nighttime cuddle like a toddler, so cozily that you’d think he’s crawling back inside Valeria’s womb for fetal comfort. Later on, their habitual peculiarities prove even more bizarre. In one scene, Valeria stands bare-chested next to her son (clearly too old to see his mom unclothed in such manner), while nonchalantly brushing her teeth in front of a mirror. It’s a distressing image that looks utterly primal, even animalistic.
Still, no one is happier than Rodrigo, who seems stuck in perpetual infancy with his mom’s undivided attention. So when Valeria, clearly in denial about Rodrigo’s extreme attachment, starts a healthy romantic relationship with the caring Fernando (Fabián Corres), Patterson infuses the anxious air with a small amount of relief, however brief. If only Rodrigo could also savor the perks a new parental figure brings along — the short trips to the seaside, the teamwork around the house, all the shopping trips and driving lessons he is welcome to benefit from.
Instead, the young boy brews a hidden hatred toward the person he perceives as a threat to his domain, an escalating dread visually aided by cinematographer María Sarasvati Herrera’s attentive lens. Amplifying both the emotional intensity and the sense of hazard on which Rodrigo dwells, Herrera accentuates grainy textures and sensual tints, as raindrops, colorful neon lights, window reflections and twinkling sunlight add up to a soft, melancholic visual palette. At the same time, she stays unnervingly close to her subjects, toying with our perception of the clan’s physical safety that deepens the restlessness hanging in the air.
All three performers are stellar in dissolving themselves into that atmosphere. Rossi especially delivers a performance of many layers. He is quiet and explosive in equal measure, while Rodrigo grapples with his lost childhood and demoted status, spitefully taking note of Fernando’s paternal masculinity that unseats his own.
In that, Rodrigo sabotages Fernando in doses — his acts, minor and inconsequential at first, take up an alarming dimension later on. Meanwhile, he erupts with destructive energy elsewhere. Assuming a junkyard and a dilapidated RV as his new territory and outlet, he discharges his rage onto clunky objects, smashing, kicking and even burning them, in scenes both perilous and liberating. Patterson roots that dash of freedom in clever sound design. When metal scraps and abandoned debris let out their thuds and thumps, the noise becomes synonymous with Rodrigo’s inner turmoil, an extension of his psyche and release of his voiceless frustrations. It is when his two worlds merge that the happy couple come to terms with the severity of the problem on their hands.
“Summer White” isn’t the kind of film that will offer easy conclusions to the trio’s tricky situation in the end. It doesn’t claim to have urgent points to make on adolescent isolation, parental helplessness and shades of premature masculinity that beg to be shaped in wise hands. But it does absorb those themes in raw, honest and original ways, while putting Patterson on the map with his refined visual language and philosophical depth.
Read More About:
Jump to Comments‘Summer White’: Film Review
Reviewed at Dolby 88, New York, Jan. 10, 2020. (In Sundance Film Festival.) Running time: 85 MIN. (Original title: “Blanco de verano”)
More from Variety
UFC 306: O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili — How to Watch the MMA Fight Live Online
Despite ‘Joker’ Folly and ‘The Penguin’ Success, DC Studios Still Untested
‘Strange Darling’ Sets Digital and Blu-ray/DVD Release Dates
MLB Playoffs 2024: How to Watch Division Series Online
‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Success Doesn’t Downplay Risky Reboots Coming to Theaters
How to Watch the WNBA 2024 Playoffs Live Online
Most Popular
Inside the 'Joker: Folie à Deux' Debacle: Todd Phillips ‘Wanted Nothing to Do’ With DC on the $200 Million Misfire
‘Kaos’ Canceled After One Season at Netflix
‘Menendez Brothers’ Netflix Doc Reveals Erik’s Drawings of His Abuse and Lyle Saying ‘I Would Much Rather Lose the Murder Trial Than Talk About Our…
Kathy Bates Won an Oscar and Her Mom Told Her: ‘You Didn't Discover the Cure for Cancer,’ So ‘I Don't Know What All the Excitement Is About…
Saoirse Ronan Says Losing Luna Lovegood Role in ‘Harry Potter’ Has ‘Stayed With Me Over the Years’: ‘I Was Too Young’ and ‘Knew I Wasn't Going to Get…
‘Joker 2’ Director Says Arthur Fleck Was Never Joker: ‘He's an Unwitting Icon’ and Joker Is ‘This Idea That Gotham People Put on Him…
‘Joker 2’ Axed Scene of Lady Gaga’s Lee Kissing a Woman at the Courthouse Because ‘It Had Dialogue in It’ and ‘Got in the Way’ of a Music…
Andrew Garfield Says Sex Scene With Florence Pugh in ‘We Live in Time’ Went a ‘Little Bit Further’ Than Intended: ‘We Never Heard Cut…
‘Skyfall’ Director Sam Mendes Says James Bond Studio Prefers Filmmakers ‘Who Are More Controllable’: ‘I Would Doubt’ I’d…
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried to Star in ‘The Housemaid’ Adaptation From Director Paul Feig, Lionsgate
Must Read
- Film
COVER | Sebastian Stan Tells All: Becoming Donald Trump and Starring in 2024’s Most Controversial Movie
By Andrew Wallenstein 3 weeks
- TV
Menendez Family Slams Netflix’s ‘Monsters’ as ‘Grotesque’ and ‘Riddled With Mistruths’: ‘The Character Assassination of Erik and Lyke Is Repulsive…
- TV
‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Part 2 to Air on CBS After Paramount Network Debut
- TV
50 Cent Sets Diddy Abuse Allegations Docuseries at Netflix: ‘It’s a Complex Narrative Spanning Decades’ (EXCLUSIVE)
- Shopping
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Sets Digital and Blu-ray/DVD Release Dates
Sign Up for Variety Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Variety Confidential
ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXN8jp%2BgpaVfp7K3tcSwqmirpaK6pr6MsJ%2BirJViv6bCyJ6uZpqclruku4ydnGaulaeur7uMamlpa2Rtf3GFkmg%3D