Dog Days of Summer (2007)

Simply A Masterpiece

i must have seen a different film!!

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

In the "making of" for DOG DAYS OF SUMMER--which is officially titled DOG DAYS OF SUMMER: IN THE DARK ROOM--first-time feature producer\director Mark Freiburger notes that he came up with the initial idea for this story while watching his sister's boyfriend play baseball for the Edenton Steamers team in Edenton, NC while he himself was still in high school. Upon graduation from North County School of the Arts film school, Mark and his cohorts from college made a beeline to what Mark describes as "the town that time forgot" to film their revised update to Mark Twain's 1899 novella, THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG. (Though Twain is NOT credited or acknowledged in this film or its "making of," if the writers are not familiar with this story, then the similarities between film and book are among the darnedest coincidences in the history of art. Speaking of which, the movie's "big reveal" is a total "borrowing" from the climactic scene of Nathaniel Hawthorne's great American novel, THE SCARLET LETTER.) Derivative or not, a flashback to boyhood by film narrator Phil Walden (Thoreau's WALDEN POND: the life idyllic, get it?) comprises the bulk of DOG DAYS OF SUMMER, beginning with a Steamers victory game vignette. But fans of the national pastime will be disappointed to discover that this is DOG DAYS last visit to the ball diamond. The only remaining baseball references are a brutal beating with ball bats by three of the players shown earlier, and young Phil's subsequent nightmare that his baseball star\juvenile thug brother may have beaten his missing girlfriend to death in similar fashion. While a better-than-average directorial debut, DOG DAYS is unlikely to appeal to baseball fans based on its diamond action.

A stranger drives into a small sleepy town (flashback mode) promising to build a model of the town for its upcoming 250th year celebration. He uses two boys to help him take photographs, one Devon Gearhart, who was excellent in another little known art-house film, "Canvas". What begins somewhat like a sweet family film, turns out to have a darker side, and like other reviewers have mentioned, a fantasy element not unlike a Twilight Zone episode, or even more like Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes". This is the directors first full length film, and while it is quite good, it ambles along and seems to lack focus as to what the story is trying to say. When it finally comes clearer in the final 15 or 20 minutes, it has some interesting revelations, some Christian elements of retribution for sinful behaviors, and a very touching scene just before the end in a soda fountain about the loss of innocence, which for me made the earlier shortcomings almost irrelevant. There is a folksy quality to the flashback scenes, which comprise the majority of the movie, while the today scenes with the now grownup Philip, are darker in mood and showing virtual total devastation of the town. The movie is filmed in Edenton, North Carolina, a beautiful small historic town on the Albemarle Bay, which adds to the excellent cinematography. This is not a movie for the action crowd, but if you are a fan of Ray Bradbury, as I am, I think you will find this film well worth your time. Just keep in mind that it is the director's first full length effort and cut him a little slack.

We live in eastern NC and saw this movie at the theater. What a special film! I heard the director say that this was his first film but it sure did not seem like that. He pulled a great performance out of the child actors and you could tell that Will Patton (one of our favorites) really brought his 'A' game. This movie is a really special coming of age film that really had us thinking.A great message... and interesting story...It kind of reminded us of Ray Bradbury story... almost like Dandelion Wine... More than anything, it captured the laid back pace of a small southern town. This is a great 1st film.

This was a good coming of age/growing up and life changing type film but more in depth about what and how the changes came about. The odd stranger that comes to the small town gives the boys a new way to look at people and things. He guides them. The way the boys perceive the town and how the stranger does also changes the town. It comes full circle for one of the boys as he loses part of his childlike hope and youthfulness in a way but is able to get it back when he comes to understand the things that occurred during that time about that particular summer and small town life.The time period was transcendent but it worked.The story was great and could have happened in any time period.The Cinematography was great and it was shot in 35mm film.The look was marvelous. It was nice that it was not all digital like so many movies. The area they filmed in had a great look and feel. It was a very interesting movie and a bit twilight zone like but not overly.I hope this breaks out of the Indie roll as it was an outstanding movie.