'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Introduces a New Generation to a Summertime Staple
The Summer I Turned Pretty series adapts the beloved trilogy into a bingeworthy TV show and introduces a new generation to Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah.

In the streets of Huentitán el Bajo, the horn of Chapo's car blares. He's a man who transformed his life, marked by violence, gangs, and addiction, into a story of redemption through art. After surviving a near-fatal ordeal, he found in sign painting and murals a way to heal and restore identity to his community. With his chopper bike, his music, and his wooden cart full of paint, Chapo travels the neighborhood, filling the walls with color and hope. Beyond his tough exterior, he reveals himself as a loving father, a committed artist, and a symbol of change in an environment still battling violence.
The Summer I Turned Pretty series adapts the beloved trilogy into a bingeworthy TV show and introduces a new generation to Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah.
With The Father, writer-director Florian Zeller- who wrote and developed the play upon which the film is based- pulls no punches as he confidently makes every effort to put the audience in the mind of someone whose grip on reality has all but vanished. It’s a dazzling testament to Zeller’s abilities as a director as he makes his first transition from stage to film appear as if he’s been working behind a camera his entire career. The dialogue he fashions with co-writer Christopher Hampton, along with the work of production designers Peter Francis and Cathy Featherstone, collectively makes the downward spiral of dementia startlingly tangible, doing so in a way that can be comprehended by everyone except the person it directly affects.
The makings of a great midseason filler episode that would connect in many different directions. This is a police drama filler with a guest director.
This film manages to be simultaneously topical and timeless. Without being preachy, it highlights society’s flawed relationship with tech; insights into the complex ideas of family struggle are expertly dispersed among a perfectly paced and balanced story.
“I’m always interested in exploring female fantasy, and the sexy witch is a loaded archetype that is simultaneously about men’s fears and fantasies about women, and women’s feelings of empowerment and agency. So whereas we are used to seeing the sexy witch or the femme fatale from the outside, I wanted to explore her from the inside.” - Anna Biller, on why she made The Love Witch