A Summer That Never Really Ended
Like other movies of its type, Staten Island Summer first appeared on the big screen in 2015 as a typical summer, raunchy teen comedy– the type of movies Netflix had just begun incorporating into its original film catalog. However, in this case, it also had a deeper meaning, portrayed indirectly. It captured the experience of growing up in a lost part of New York, in a small town. It highlighted the experience of trying to break the barriers of small town aspirations.
That film really absorbed the attributes of SNL. It had the trademark quick wit, unusual characters, and a whiff of nostalgia. It also, however, showed a deeper layer, capturing the awkwardness of youth that was trying to be romanticized, a youth that was filled with dreams that were all too swiftly lost and the summer tan was all too quickly faded.
Growing Up by the Pool — and Trying to Grow Out of It
In this story, we learn about Danny Campbell (Graham Phillips) and Frankie Piazza (Zack Pearlman), who are best friends and work as lifeguards at a local pool during the summer before their last year of college. Danny, who is quiet and ambitious, cannot wait to leave Staten Island, looking to the horizon. He has dreams that are larger than the constraints of his zip code. Frankie is the opposite. He has a childlike sense of humor and is comfortable in chaotic situations.
In this case, the two friends, and their way of life, the Staten Island pool, and childhood/lifeguarding, are all stuck in cycles and symbolize complexity within their duality. The pool, its ritzy regulars, and the routines surrounding the chlorine are all signifiers of safety and stagnation. Each dive, cannonball, and emotionally charged flirtation of reckless childhood play is a scream of anxiety in the face of inevitable change.
Staten Island Summer is primarily a comedy, and this light-hearted atmosphere allows viewers to ignore the emotional weight that lies in the stillness at the heart of the film.
When Real Life Mirrors the Script
The emotional tone of Staten Island Summer felt authentic because, for many of the cast and crew, it was. For much of his life, Staten Island Summer writer Colin Jost was trying to stretch the limits of the island. He was once the quiet, contemplative kid lost within a crowd of boisterous extroverts. Like Danny, he too dreamed of escaping the community to seek bigger and, undoubtedly, brighter opportunities.
Jost has commented on the strange, and often bittersweet, affection residents of Staten Island have for their home. Pride and frustration mingle and intertwine to create a sense of ambivalence that permeates each scene. The self-deprecating jokes about Staten Island being the “forgotten borough” cut the deepest because they are being delivered by someone who understands the grim reality.
For Graham Phillips, who played Danny, this was a career turning point. Before this role, he was a child actor in more wholesome projects such as Evan Almighty and The Good Wife, and he had been looking to move into something more loose, comedic, and reflective of real youth culture. “It was like a farewell to my own teenage years,” Phillips said in a later interview. “Danny’s fear of leaving home — I was living that.”
On the other hand, Zack Pearlman was the film’s chaotic heartbeat. With prior roles in comedic pieces such as The Inbetweeners remake, he imbued Frankie with real sweetness that lay beneath the crude humor. He was known, especially off-screen, as the mood-lifter on set, frequently improvising lines that made it into the final cut. Rhys Thomas, who also directed the film and is a former SNL member, promoted that sort of freedom, aiming to capture the essence of a natural summer as opposed to a scripted one.
The movie hides sharp commentary with some broad humor. Staten Island isn’t portrayed as a shiny island; it is depicted as middle-class America with blue-collar families, strip malls, and water community pools. Danny’s dreams of going to Princeton and traveling far beyond resonates with the quiet, unspoken anger of many small-town children in America, wishing to escape their roots.
Invisibility is the theme of the movie, feeling trapped in a limbo everyone else ignores. It is the water community pool that serves this purpose of invisibility. It is the same dull, repetitive faces that circle the pool, year after year, in the utter, suffocating silence that hangs in the air, while life outside the island is a carnival of endless opportunities.
The odd tenderness with which the party scene is shot, which could have simply been a repeat of the classic teen movie party scene, is arresting. The drunken revelry is tinged with a participatory sadness; there is a sense that the gathering might be the last in a long string of shared moments, and this in our culture is more than enough to justify the laughter.
Before the Party — The Hype That Built the Summer
Before it came out, the movie Staten Island Summer was marketed as a “throwback to 1980s coming-of-age comedies.” Fans of Superbad and American Pie expected the movie to be really funny and the trailer, with its poolside pranks, awkward hookups, and goofy end-of-summer parties, created that expectation.
However, the overly-promoted local Staten Island feel was the strongest part of the ad. Accents, banter, and the community feel was apparent. Fans from New York commented to early fan forums on Reddit, “Finally, a movie that doesn’t make Staten Island look like it’s just a bridge away from Jersey Shore.” The film’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2015 was an SNL family reunion with cameos from Fred Armisen, Bobby Moynihan, Mike O’Brien, and Kate McKinnonThese are a bunch of SNL family reunion cameos that added a wink of insider humor to the film.
A Set Full of Sweat, Laughter, and Improvisation
Regardless of how a scene plays out on screen, shooting is difficult. For this project, filming occurred during one of New York’s hottest summers (with temperatures even exceeding 35°C and crowded pool scenes.) There were even more frequent pauses for exhaustion during packed pool scenes. The crew however, needed more breaks.
In this project, filming in a live pool context was a bold decision. For the makers of this project, realism meant all the jazz: the disgusting pool, and the cacophonous children. It was, nevertheless, more difficult, and much more chaotic, than a sound stage. For the project, Staten Island was “the set”. Prairie locals were thrilled and entertained to witness the “Hollywood pool movie” being filmed.
Improvisation became the secret weapon. Unscripted and adlibbed bits became some of the most sidesplitting parts of the film. Unexpectedly, one scene flaunts a “blooper” where the actor playing Frankie (or, more correctly, Frankie’s actor) slips up during a chase scene, and the crew decided to keep it in the film for its humorous absurdity.
The Overlooked Heart of a Neglected Comedy
The release of Staten Island Summer on Netflix triggered mixed responses. Some audience members treated the film as a light and escapable comedy. Others, however, responded to its emotional frankness and nostalgia. In the long run, the film has transformed into a hidden gem, a comfort film for individuals raised in typical American towns and experiencing a tone of bittersweet remembrance.
It’s not just the comedy that makes the film endure. It’s the truth in the film that resonates with the audience. It captures a love for a place and the desire to escape it. It paints the picture of the last summer and the crucial choices that trudge into the lives of the individuals.
To Colin Jost and the SNL crew, Staten Island Summer was not simply a comedy. It was a farewell. A farewell to youth, simplicity, and the formative summers of their lives.
Watch Free Movies on MyFlixer-to.online