I remember dealing with a lot of bullshit and nonsense growing up as a child, from emotional growing pains to literal growing pains, but at least I didn’t have to live with the specter of AIDS hanging over me, which the protagonist of Carla Simón’s superb feature debut, Summer 1993, does. The film is startlingly lovely considering it’s foregrounded in the orphaning of a young girl and the seemingly endless repercussions of her parents’ deaths at the hands of AIDS; Simón has a light aesthetic touch, gentle, delicate, forward-facing so that we never lose sight of the story’s inborn gravity. Another early gem from 2018 for anyone lucky enough to live near a theater playing it. And if you’re not, you can content yourself by reading over my review for Paste Magazine.
A Constant Visual Feast 