16-year-old Cyd (Jessie Pinnick) decides to take a break from her depressive single father and spend a summer in Chicago with her aunt Miranda (Rebecca Spence), a well-known novelist. Soon after her arrival, Cyd encounters Katie (Malic White), a young barista behind the counter. The two make plans to meet up after Katie’s shift and a new, charged relationship begins. The Chicago landscape expands, and we navigate intimate and fragile moments between Cyd and Katie as they explore their new attraction. Miranda functions as a counterpart to young Cyd’s new explorations of sexuality and love, and as the summer continues they develop a strong relationship founded on a shared openness and healthy criticism of particular personal moments.
Sensitive to the contradictions and confusion of the ever-changing self, Stephen Cone has created a film that reimagines that distinct summer feeling when adolescence creeps in, skin is bared, emotions emerge, and everything begins to feel more complicated.
