Review: Cheeky, Witty 'The Summer with Carmen' Revives Summer with Autumn Release

Director Zacharias Mavroeidis leans into some meta fun around filmmaking with "The Summer with Carmen," a movie that starts at a nude beach in Greece and makes its way into steamy bedroom encounters, complicated emotional entanglements, and a cheeky syllabus for Screenwriting 101.

Hunky former actor Demosthenes (Yorgos Tsiantoulas) and his friend and fellow former actor Nikitas (Andreas Labropoulos) bake in the sun at a seaside stretch where the guys are as bare as the sand-free rocks. Casually and comfortably naked, they watch various mini-dramas unfold around them as a public blowjob takes place, a pair of exuberant friends dance, and awkward guys fall flat in their attempts at cruising. As the summer day passes, they debate ideas for a movie script that Nikitas can pitch to a producer, hitting on the idea of turning Demosthenes' brutal breakup of two summers before into a film-worthy treatment.

In flashback, we see how Demosthenes and his ex, Panos (Nikolaos Mihas) finally reach the end of their relationship's road... only to linger at the last rest stop along the way. Unable to break things off for good, they continue to orbit each other, and when Panos loses patience with a stray dog he's taken in – the titular Carmen – Demosthenes steps up to foster the adorable pet.

But does he actually care for the dog? Or is she one last way for him to keep some sort of connection alive with Panos? Either way, Carmen slowly melts the heart of Demosthenes' disapproving, homophobic mother, Keti (Roubini Vasilakopoulou) and cheers his ailing father.

But can a zig-zagging tale of heartbreak, family discord, and needy love displaced onto an adopted dog be turned into the "fun, sexy, Greek, low-budget" movie that the producer is looking for? Maybe, especially if the two friends can work in a few water-borne musical numbers.

Then again, maybe not. Shaping the story is a challenge; life doesn't conform to the standard outline and beat-by-beat schematics of the screenwriter's craft. Plus, Nikitas points out, the story Demosthenes is recounting boils down to "two fairies dragging a dog back and forth because they can't break up." That's a fair, if brutal, assessment, but what's not fair is how Demonsthenes' clinging to a relationship that has run its course obstructs his growing romance with a new guy named Thymios (Vasilis Tsigristaris).

The cast is stuffed with lookers who are happy to shuck their clothes for the camera and engage in naturalistic performances that feel spicy but avoid mere prurience. (As Nikitas frets, too much gratuitous nudity would be "cheap".) As erotic as the guys' not-shy, full-frontal screen time might be, what truly sells the story is how comfortable they are in their own skins. An added bonus are the many subtle jokes Mavroeidis and co-writer Fondas Chalatsis work into the script and direction.

A successful combination of bare bods and inspired storytelling make "The Summer with Carmen" a top-tier gay flick on par with smart fare like "Stranger by the Lake," "End of the Century," "Weekend," and other movies that transcend tired tropes and cliched storylines. No, Demosthenes' story doesn't fit into the cookie-cutter confines of a screenwriting program... and that's part of what makes this deft, emotionally rich film a standout.

"The Summer with Carmen" reaches American audiences on DVD on Oct. 15 via Cinephobia Releasing.