The Girls of Summer (2020)

**_Lowkey Indie about coming-of-age and traveling with a band_** A musically-inclined young woman working on her ill father’s sod farm in northern Indiana (Tori Titmas) joins a touring country band and discovers her gift for writing songs. “The Girls of Summer” (2020) was director John D. Hancock’s most recent film and likely his last seeing as how he’s now 85. He helmed “Let’s Scare Jessica to Death” and “California Dreaming” in the 70s, which means he’s no slouch. Here, he’s strapped with a very low-budget and several amateur actors, filming in his area of residence, La Porte, Indiana, and places nearby. Don’t get me wrong, Tori Titmas does well as the protagonist and the actors who play the father (Jeff Puckett), Luke (Nathan Hosner) and Ben Stone (Dustin Chilton) do a fine job. It’s the others who aren’t up to snuff, although they’re okay some of the time. However, the brawl in the night club is awkwardly executed. It needed reshoots and reediting, but that takes time and time is money in this biz. Still, there’s enough good here if you can roll with the defects of subdued Indie filmmaking and are in the mood for something along the lines of “Tender Mercies” or the underrated "The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll” (2009), even “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” The soulful country songs are quite good, speaking as someone who’s not a fan. Yet it’s in the area of human interest that the flick works best as Maren grows in her talents and learns a thing or two about life and people. It runs 1 hour, 33 minutes, and was shot in north-central Indiana and southwest Michigan (La Porte, Michigan City, St. Joseph, Niles and so on). GRADE: C+/B-