Movie Review: 'Staten Island Summer'
- sarahkloepple
- Jul 31, 2015
- 2 min read
I really wanted to like Staten Island Summer, a by-the-books summer flick penned by SNL Weekend Update’s Colin Jost (available on Netflix as of yesterday). But I don’t think I did.
With an array of star SNL players like Cecily Strong and Bobby Moynihan—and cameos from previous ones like Fred Armisen and Will Forte—State Island Summer had everything going for it.
But not much about it worked. These types of teen-centered summer movies, like Superbad or The To-Do List or The Way, Way Back, are equal parts quirky, smart and raunchy. State Island Summer felt like a knock-off.
As a semi-autobiographical account of Jost’s teenage years, the movie follows Danny Campbell (Graham Phillips). He’s fresh out of high school and prepared to spend one last summer in his hometown as a lifeguard at the local pool with his best friend, Frank (Zack Pearlman). With the other seasoned lifeguards (Strong, Moynihan, John DeLuca), Danny and Frank want to pull off one final, epic party before Danny leaves for Harvard. Their creepy boss, Chuck (Mike O’Brien, another SNL player), is their only obstacle.
Many of the cast members are reduced to boring stereotypes. Cecily Strong literally plays a “One-Dimensional Female Character from a Male-Driven Comedy,” a shtick she does on Update. Pearlman, who gave one of the few memorable performances, is stuck in the “less attractive friend who hates change” role. Ashley Greene, as Danny’s childhood crush, Krystal, doesn’t do much besides walk around in a bathing suit.
Many of the one-liners are dull and the big scenes that are supposed to make us laugh (like the exploding hornet’s nest) don’t. I was also confused by the stuffed lion running gag—that’s not raunch, that’s just plain gross—and the romance storylines. Danny and Krystal’s relationship has plenty of build-up (and a weird mobster subplot), but it seems like Jost didn’t know what to do with it in the end; it’s wrapped up quite lazily.
But I don’t want to completely bash State Island Summer. There were a handful of things I did like: Fred Armisen’s role as the innovative maintenance man, Danny’s mom’s motorcycle scare tactics, and the overall aesthetic—the movie looks downright beautiful at times.
Yet in the end, State Island Summer falls flat. It may deliver a few laughs, but there are better, funnier summer flicks out there.
