Sundance 2026: CHASING SUMMER FINDS GRACE IN THE RUINS

Jamie’s return to her Texas hometown gives Chasing Summer a warm, lived‑in pulse, and Josephine Decker guides the film with a sense of drift that suits a story about a woman sorting through the pieces of a life suddenly rearranged. Iliza Shlesinger, who also wrote the script, steps into the role with a mix of sharp humor and open‑hearted vulnerability, shaping Jamie as someone who moves through memory and desire with equal curiosity.

The film opens with Jamie’s double loss—job and boyfriend—yet the tone leans toward renewal rather than despair. Decker frames Texas as a place where heat carries both ache and promise, and Jamie’s return to familiar streets stirs a summer she once lived with reckless joy. The story grows from this tension: the pull of who she was and the possibility of who she might become.

Garrett Wareing brings a gentle steadiness as the hometown flame whose presence stirs Jamie’s sense of unfinished business. Their scenes together glow with a soft charge, as if the past is breathing just behind them. Lola Tung adds a bright counterpoint as a friend who remembers Jamie’s wild edges and welcomes their return, giving the film a buoyant rhythm whenever she appears.

Decker’s direction favors intimacy—faces in close frame, conversations that feel half‑spoken, moments that drift into silence. This approach gives the film a tender texture, even when Jamie’s choices tilt toward chaos. Shlesinger’s writing leans into humor as a form of resilience, allowing the film to move lightly even as it circles deeper emotional terrain.

The mixed‑to‑positive balance comes from the film’s willingness to wander. Its looseness creates space for Jamie’s transformation, and the performances carry that openness with grace. The story’s emotional arc lands with a sense of earned warmth, offering a portrait of a woman who steps back into her past only to discover a future waiting inside it.

Chasing Summer ultimately feels like a sun‑drenched invitation to begin again. Decker, Shlesinger, Wareing, and Tung shape a film that moves with ease, humor, and affection for its characters, leaving a soft afterglow long after Jamie’s journey settles.

Review Grade: B+.