In his directorial debut, Elijah Bynum deftly establishes a riveting tableau of small-town Northeastern Americana-there are “townies” and “summer birds,” the haves and the have-nots clearly demarcated by socioeconomic checkpoints: who’s driving what car, who’s living in what neighborhood, and most saliently, who’s smoking the expensive stuff. But as the summer wears on and the heat wave reaches a breaking point-culminating in a heavily symbolic summer storm-the teenagers in Cape Cod will have to reckon with what they’ve done, and decide who should be held accountable. He demands that he and Hunter take the weed-dealing business to the next level, procuring larger and larger quantities to sell. As temperatures climb, a fact often reiterated by spliced-in news reports and radio announcements, so does Daniel’s restlessness.
There, he befriends Hunter Strawberry (Alex Roe), a townie who makes pocket change by dealing weed to tourists, and becomes infatuated with the enigmatic McKayla (Maika Monroe), a local girl-next-door who is as elusive as she is beautiful. During the sweltering summer of 1991, before his senior year, Daniel’s acts of rebellion after his father’s death earn him a summer of exile to his aunt’s house in Cape Cod, a punishment that even he admits is cliché. In “Hot Summer Nights,” Elijah Bynum’s directorial debut, gawky, surly Daniel Middleton (Timothée Chalamet) is both journeyer and stranger. It’s said that there are two plots in all of fiction: Either someone goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.
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