Sundance 2026: Chasing Summer
2.5/5
liza Shlesinger leads an excellent cast as a disaster-response titan who moves back home to Texas after a long-term relationship ends, prompting a reassessment of the place she once tried so desperately to escape—and a realization that the reasons she left may not have been the full story.
This is a fun watch ultimately hampered by an inconsistent script, surprisingly amateur filmmaking, and a largely predictable plot. Only about half of the humor really lands, which isn’t enough to compensate for the film’s other shortcomings. As much as I generally enjoyed it, the film leaves you feeling hollow. The emotional beats rarely work—or work so faintly that they feel entirely unearned—and the ending erases much of the goodwill you may have generously extended during the preceding 90 minutes.
The opening and closing are particularly weak. The middle fares better, finding a rhythm as the characters begin to feel more lived-in and the predictable plot beats start to land more often than not. Still, so much of the film doesn’t work. While some relationships feel true to life, the film’s uneven quality consistently undermines the moments that should matter most.
You’ll find yourself wondering how one scene can so effortlessly balance humor, raw honesty, and growth (the neighborhood barbecue is a standout), while others feel completely stilted and flat—particularly anything involving her old high school fling, who reappears inexplicably and is never meaningfully used as a foil. Tom Welling plays the former beau (yes, the Smallville fantasies appear to be universal), but the character is thinly sketched. Unfortunately, that lack of depth is the film’s prevailing issue.
It’s clear Jamie has abandoned her hometown prematurely, running away from something rather than toward it. The film falters by using her return exclusively for her own growth, largely at the expense of everyone around her. It’s evident she left with unresolved business, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that nearly everyone she reconnects with would have been better off had she stayed away. That could be compelling if the film were interested in interrogating it—but it isn’t. Instead, the ending gestures toward a happy resolution without reckoning with the damage left behind. There is no real growth here, despite the film’s insistence otherwise, and this inability to examine its protagonist honestly leaves the entire project feeling like everyone involved was making a different movie
.