Kings of Summer

Three 15-year-old kids decide to run away from home for the summer and live in a home-made shed in the woods. But be careful, because one of them, Biaggio (Moises Arias), is in danger of upstaging the other actors and stealing the whole movie. Overall this is well-done adolescent escapism. Performances are all strong and the pace of the fantasy is never boring. Filmmakers lose track of their theme for a sequence or two in the second half, but they quickly recover. It’s a case of first time director jitters – force-feeding the audience something they were already enjoying; a sweet and agile John Hughes homage. Kudos to all for mastering the basics and making conflict, escapism and entertainment a priority.