‘Best Summer Ever’ a new take on the beloved teen musical genre featuring eight original songs and a fully integrated cast and crew of people with and without disabilities. The cast comprises of actors and actresses who vary on the spectrum and all are uniquely showcased in the songs with similar tones like ‘Glee’ and ‘High School Musical’. A Movie like this could be an easy target for being the right intention and horrible execution of inclusion, similar to Sia’s recent film ‘Music’. But ‘Best Summer Ever’ doesn’t diminish or sidestep these wonderful actors, they embrace and bring them to us with a fun albeit paint by the numbers story.
That is the only issue I have with the film is in its story. It’s very conventional, and I wished it had more to it. The music is decent and all of the performers are great. Still I found myself wrapped up in the characters and motivations all the same. The acting by both leads are strong and they have great chemistry.
The film is shot beautiful colorful and bright, I could definitely see it being picked up by Netflix especially with Netflix recently putting out ‘The Prom’, another coming of age musical. As well, Netflix recently released a show called ‘Love on the Spectrum’ that if you enjoyed that will definitely enjoy watching this.
Overall, I had a good time watching ‘Best Summer Ever’. If you can’t handle cheesy storylines and a High School Musical tone you might not like this, but anyone looking to see something new and unique I’d say check it out.
