A Dozen Summers (UK Rating: PG)
Everybody’s been a child, so why do movie makers find it so hard to make films from a youngster’s point of view? Disney’s recent Inside Out showed what was happening inside the head of an 11-year-old in an imaginative way. Now British indie film, A Dozen Summers, shows the world through the eyes of twin twelve-year-olds, and they are making a film about it. With A Dozen Summers currently being screened in Leicester, and due to be featured in this week’s Talking Pictures podcast, Freda takes a closer look the movie in this latest Lights, Camera, Action! review.
The story, such as it is, takes the audience into the lives of twins Maisie and Daisy (Scarlet and Hero Hall, respectively). The camera follows them at school – hanging out with their friends and standing up to the school bully – and at home, where they live with their dad, who is “good at the ordinary stuff.” Their mother, Jacqueline (Sarah Warren), on the other hand, is pursuing her life as a model (“not a real one,” as Daisy pointedly observes) and flitting from one unsuitable boyfriend to another.
This isn’t a film with a lot of action, but that’s not the point, as it aims to take a different approach to children’s films, setting out its stall from the opening shot with its saccharine voiceover from Colin Baker – a parody of the more familiar style. It doesn’t last long, because he’s stopped short by the two girls and, from thereon in, they are in control. Making a film themselves means that they can do anything: all they have to do is change scenes – real or fantasy – by clicking their fingers, Mary Poppins-style, and that’s not the only reference scattered throughout the story, mainly for the benefit of the older viewers. Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Cameron’s Titanic, and even Ingmar Bergman’s Seventh Seal all find their way in there.
There are some great visual gags, and it is definitely worth keeping an eye on the background, as well as whatever’s happening in the foreground, since there is an evens chance of something amusingly appropriate, or just downright surreal, going on there. Even guardians of the English language have their moment, with a sign on the door of the local shop proclaiming “Only three studnets allowed,” and there’s another identical one inside.
Behind this charmingly quirky view of the world is Director, Kenton Hall. He’s also the Producer, plays the twins’ father, wrote the script, plus composed all of the songs. That could make the film sound like a vanity project, but in fact it’s a labour of love – a genuinely enjoyable attempt to make something that shows the world through the eyes of children, rather than showing what adults think they see. The only shame is that its distribution looks like being limited, with it currently only screening in Leicester. Thankfully, however, more dates and locations are in the pipeline, and it has to be hoped that the distributor doesn’t take too long because, regardless of age, this is definitely worth seeing.
