Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘My Summer as a Goth’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains some spoilers for the motion picture, ‘My Summer as a Goth’.
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The ‘coming of age’ story is truly a staple of American cinema and with good reason. Because there is something quite powerful about seeing the moment when youth comes to realize what the world is about and what their role in it truly is, and there is also something quite powerful, about being reminded of our own awakening. For everyone can speak to the all-important day, where our perspective upon the world changed forever and that really is a significant and powerful moment in our lives and celebrating it on the silver screen in either fictional or non-fictional form has become a proud movie-going tradition.
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But while it is wonderful to know that filmmakers out there are eager to explore this particular moment, these are films that have unfortunately become a tad predictable. Because formula is king and as time goes on, it seems that folks that want to explore this important aspect of growing up are keen to just put the characters on some kind of grandiose road trip a la Stand By Me in order to tell their tale, or the characters in question are going to have to go through hell in order to reach their respective epiphanies. But the fact of the matter is, our coming of age doesn’t always involve some kind of epic moment or stunning epiphany, sometimes time and the right circumstances, help us to understand the world and our future and recently, this reviewer had the pleasure of enjoying a comedy that accomplishes this in a low-key and satisfying manner in My Summer as a Goth. 

Now in this particular film we are introduced to a teenager named Joey who is at quite the crossroads in her life. For her father recently passed away and the resulting fall out of his death has fractured her relationship with her mother, and to complicate matters further, she simply doesn’t fit in at school and feels lost and angry about life and her future and now… at a time when she believes she needs her mother the most, she’s being sent to live with her grandparents for the summer while her mother heads off on a book tour. An act that she sees as the ultimate slap in the face, but it will turn out be a life changing decision. For once Joey gets to her grandparent’s house, she meets a goth teen named Victor who takes a shine to her, and the invitation he offers her to enter his world, will alter the course of her life in ways she never thought possible.

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So, what truly makes this particular story so incredibly fascinating and worth the audience’s while, is that it finds a way to outright surprise you. Because early on, it seems as though this movie is going to go heavy on the comedy and use the whole goth lifestyle as part of a comedic grand plan to have Joey realize that she wants more out of life, which would have worked fine. But as she begins to dive deeper into Victor’s world, we quickly come to realize just how lost Joey is in regard to the death of her father and how sheltered and innocent she is as well, and that reveal allows for the story to move into a bold new direction, one that truly offers up an intimate coming of age story since Joey begins to see the world in a new light. 
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Because becoming a goth allows for her to realize that we simply cannot judge people by their appearances. Since she is viewed in a dynamic new light by her family and the people of the town her grandparents live within, once she adopts the goth lifestyle, and that teaches her to be a little more opened minded about the people she meets, a decision that pays off in spades. But more importantly, becoming a goth allows for Joey to learn that sometimes, when we feel adrift in life and are unsure of how to right our course, losing ourselves completely is the healthiest way to solve that problem. For it really does allow for us to see our lives in an objective light since we are now an outsider to it and oddly enough, this is a lesson that can be applied to adults who have already been through their life changing teenage epiphanies. 

But what matters more, is that this is a wonderfully beautiful and subtle way for Joey to find a path forward and have the healthy and appropriate confrontations she needs in order to grow and really in the end, all of these elements make for one brilliant motion picture. Because everything that happens here feels natural and organic, which shouldn’t be the case for a movie that features some heavier concepts. But the perfect blend of drama and comedy and endearing moments allows for this story to work in every way imaginable, and it keeps your attention throughout and most important of all, it leaves you feeling pretty darn good once it has come to an end and truly, this is one you should see when you get the opportunity. Because you simply cannot go wrong with an honest and endearing coming of age story, one that shuns formula to offer up an intimate tale that takes the time to remind to us; that life is what you make it.  

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