Diksha Sundriyal
Directed by Jillian Bell, Hulu’s ‘Summer of 69’ is a coming-of-age comedy film about a teenager named Abby Flores. With the graduation upon her, she wants to make a mark before leaving school, and that means finally wooing her long-time crush, Max Warren. He is newly single, which means that there is a very small window for Abby to seduce him. She discovers that he likes the sexual position 69, so she decides to do it with him, but the problem is that she has zero sexual experience and doesn’t know the first thing about seducing anyone.
This is where Santa Monica comes in. She is an exotic dancer who can teach Abby whatever she needs to know. Both women want something from each other, but their journey together takes them to some very unexpected places. What makes the movie more entertaining is how realistically it portrays the challenge of a young person trying to understand their desires.
The Fictional Summer of 69 Has a Personal Connection to the Director
‘Summer of 69’ is a fictional story penned by Liz Nico and Jules Byrne with Jillian Bell. When the script came to Bell, it was already pretty fleshed out, but she related to its premise so much that she decided to make some changes to it. Considering that sex is an important part of the discussion in the film, she wanted to make sure that the film realistically portrays female sexual desire. She noted that, generally, sex comedies, especially the ones dealing with teenagers, are focused on presenting a man’s side of the story. Rarely has the attention been turned towards young women and what they want.
With ‘Summer of 69,’ Bell wanted to rectify that situation. To present Abby’s experience of learning about sex, the director tapped into her own experience of the same. She related to Abby on several levels, including her being a late bloomer. She also went to a Catholic school, which meant that sex was not allowed to be a topic of conversation, and so, she had to lean on other sources to figure out the stuff for herself. In the movie, Abby relies on Santa Monica, while Bell found that guidance in her elder sister, Breanna Bell-Singer, who has also produced the Hulu film.
The Chemistry Between the Actresses Elevated the Story
When it came to bringing Abby to life on the screen, newcomer Sam Morelos was cast in the role. Being fresh out of school and having just entered college, she could relate to the character’s emotional and mental upheaval and the desire to understand things that she hadn’t been able to experience for so long. To represent the shell that Abby has been living in, Morelos worked on her physicality, borrowing some awkwardness from herself to infuse in the character. Similarly, Chloe Fineman, who plays Santa Monica, took dancing lessons before the filming started to be able to perform the difficult pole dancing choreography, while citing Mikey Madison as the inspiration for taking this challenge.
Above all, the actresses formed a close bond with each other, which is reflected in the relationship between their characters as well. Their chemistry is instrumental to the story, and that’s what Bell wanted to focus on. She referred to John Hughes’ movies to get a similar tone for ‘Summer of 69,’ as her primary intention was to showcase the depth and strength of female friendships. Because both Abby and Santa Monica are about to make some pretty big moves in their lives, they have a lot to learn from each other, and that connection is what sits at the core of the story. At the end of the day, it becomes a coming-of-age for not just Abby but also Santa Monica, which is what perhaps makes the characters and their journey so relatable, despite their fictional nature.
Read More: Summer of 69: Is Diamond Dolls a Real Strip Club?
