The Last Summer

The Last Summer 

Bibliographic Information: 

Title: The Last Summer   

Movie Director: William Bindley  

Production Company: Gulfstream Pictures 

Copyright: 2019  

Genre:Teen Romance, Comedy 

Awards or Honors: Teen Choice Nominee for Summer Movie  

Watching Level: TV 14 

Plot Summary: This movie follows a group of loosely connected teenagers enjoying their last summer in Chicagoland before college. Griffin and Phoebe spend the summer working on Phoebe’s video project before attending NYU while he decides between Columbia and Berklee College of Music. Alec and Erin break up at the start of summer and follows their adventures and heartache throughout the summer. Chad and Reece reinvent themselves from unpopular students to successful business people. Each of them learns about themselves and the types of adult lives they want to have after high school.   

Movie Director Background: William Bindley is a director, producer, and writer who has worked in the film industry for decades. He decided to write The Last Summer based on his own high school-age experiences because that was when everything changed for him (Menta, 2019). He wrote the film with his brother and wanted to make it an ensemble cast following the tradition of coming of age movies. Bindley went to college in Chicago, where he set the film.   

Bindley carefully picked the actors involved in the film, and he stated that he was glad that KJ Apa agreed to be Griffin. His daughter was a fan of the tv show The Fosters and recommended Maia Mitchell (Menta, 2019). One of his favorite days of filming the movie was at Wrigley Stadium, where he got the chance to go on the field and run the bases.   

Critical Evaluation: The movie features amazing and accurate local scenes in the Chicago area, including downtown, Wrigley Field, suburban houses, the North Shore, and other places in Chicago. The cast is diverse and features many actors that are well known for other teen projects, like KJ Apa in Riverdale and Maia Mitchell in The Fosters. The music features lots of catchy acoustic folk and indie pop from artists. Many of the songs feature young love ideas, discovering yourself, and making decisions for yourself instead of others.   

Creative Use: For this program, we will have a summer movie night on a weekday evening from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The film will be shown, and snacks with popcorn and fruit will be available. This will allow teens to come to the library during the summer and provide them with chances to read or be part of other summer programs going on during the summer or the rest of the year.     

Speed Talk: Summertime in Chicago, with high school behind them and their future unknown. For a group of teenagers, this is the chance to find love, reinvent themselves, and discover new opportunities. Starring KJ Apa and Maia Mitchell, this summer adventure allows teenagers to explore their new lives as they enter adulthood.   

Potential Challenges: There are no historical challenges to the movie. Some potential challenges might include some for language or romance. However, it is PG 14 and unlikely to have any serious challenges.   

Reason for Inclusion: The Last Summer is a recent movie that deals with many issues that teenagers might face. These include parent divorce, new jobs, college choices, deciding what to do after high school, and relationships. It also stars actors and actresses who have been in influential teen shows like KJ Apa in Riverdale and Maia Mitchell in The Fosters. I found the movie had a lot of situations and scenarios that teenagers often find themselves in, and I thought they might learn or be able to relate to some of the problems.    

Menta, Anna. (2019, May 3). How ‘The Last Summer’ Director William Bindley Put Together His Trendy Young Cast. Decider. https://decider.com/2019/05/03/the-last-summer-director-william-bindley-interview/