Sundance reviews: 'In the Summers' captures two siblings' life with their difficult dad more with looks than with words

The thoughtful and sometimes wrenching drama “In the Summers” takes an episodic look at a difficult childhood, showing two siblings on their summertime visits to their volatile father.

Each of the four chapters starts the same way: The kids, Violeta and Eva, are standing outside the airport in Las Cruces, New Mexico, waiting for their father, Vicente (René Pérez Joglar, known by his rap name, Residente), to pick them up. In the first chapter, Violeta (Dreya Castillo) and Eva (Luciana Elisa Quinonez) are elementary-school age, and enjoying swimming in the pool at Dad’s house, or going out stargazing in the desert. The most dramatic moment in this segment, and a foreshadowing of what’s to come, is Violeta cutting her hair to a more masculine bob.

In the second chapter, Violeta (Kimaya Thais) and Eva (Allison Salinas) are a few years older, and Dad is more troubled. They notice more easily, playing pool at the bar of Vicente’s friend Carmen (Emma Ramos), that Dad drinks too much. One night, on a long drive, Dad’s interest in beer leads to horrific results.

Chapter 3, and Eva arrives without her sister, and finds Dad has a new girlfriend, Yenny (Leslie Grace, from “In the Heights”), and together they have a baby girl, Natalia. In Chapter 4, the siblings are out of college, Violeta (played now by Lio Mehiel, from last year’s Sundance hit “Mutt”) is transitioning and Eva (Sasha Calle, who played Supergirl in “The Flash”) is wary of getting too open with Dad.

Writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio is not particularly interested in the surface details of these characters — for example, it’s never clear what Vicente does for a living, other than once when we see him tutoring a student, Camila (played by Gabriella Surodjawan and Sharlene Cruz at different ages). Instead, Lacorazza is aiming for the emotional truths below the surface. This may be confounding for fans who expect an explosive argument where all the grievances are finally aired, but it turns out the subtle approach is more true to who these characters are.

Though Pérez Joglar is the constant force of “In the Summers” and carries Vicente’s pain well, the film’s emotional weight is handled adeptly by the six young actors who play Violeta and Eva at three different ages — particularly Mehiel and Calle, who communicate years of pain and memory with a single look.

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‘In the Summers’

★★★1/2

Screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably R for sexuality, some violence, alcohol and marijuana use, and language. Running time: 98 minutes.

Screens again: Thursday, January 25, 9:15 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 2, Park City.  Also available online via the Sundance portal, Thursday-Sunday, January 25-28.