Leicester-made A Dozen Summers comes to Netflix in December 2021. This review was originally published on our old site during the film's first release.

A Dozen Summers

Directed by Kenton Hall

With Richard Linklater’s 2014 movie Boyhood filmed over a 12 year period, there appears to be something magical in the air about the number 12 and growing up in the 21^st century.

A Dozen Summers follows the exploits of two 12-year olds (played by the daughters of writer-director Kenton Hall) and takes a wry look at the often overlooked gap between primary school childhood years and the almost-adult like behaviour of terrible teens by focusing on the concerns and worries of these Midlands girls as they mature between the two.

Maisie (Scarlett Hall) and Daisy (Hero Hall) McCormack are the real life twin sisters who live with their father Henry McCormack (director Kenton Hall as well) and this family friendly film covers a variety of ‘rights of passages’ from school bullying incidents to first-loves and sibling rivalry.

I enjoyed how the film takes these incidents as seriously as any adult drama, neither patronising the audience or the girls themselves. Yet with an assortment of sequences, the comedy comes via its genre-hopping delivery and from a fantasy heist film scene set in a sweet shop to a police procedural interview between father and daughter, the film shows a confident use of technique and knowledge of movie culture and iconography.

The film subverts these from the very beginning where the girls actually commandeer the camera itself. We open on the morning of a busy school day in their hometown of Leicester and narration is provided by Colin Baker. His whose authorial and gentle voice is usurped by the vocal teens in a fourth-wall breaking conceit that continues throughout the plot. From addressing the camera to responding to the narrator himself, the film’s meta-comedy is both refreshing and clever as the girls even claim “stranger danger” as the camera films children in a park.

This humour has tinges of The Simpsons and Family Guy – and most notably the TV series Spaced – whose cutaway gags and pop culture/film references come thick and fast. The film wears its influences on its sleeve but is also a comment on the fractured nature of modern society – a meme film if you will – churning out re-shaped but familiar images of well known films and ideas for its own (and our) amusement.

Key to also moving the story along is the mother Jacqueline (a rip-roaring performance from Sarah Warren) as a wannabe model with eccentric and avant-garde tendencies and introduced to the film via a hilarious visit to a school classroom to admonish her daughters’ bullies.

Unlike other characters, she does not address the camera but I felt this helped ground some of the more tender moments in the film. However, it’s not too long before we get another “leap” into movie-history – with inspired scenes in black and white during a Seventh Seal pastiche (where the two leads bemoan the use of subtitles) and then later on - horror, school comedy and romance via many others too.

Stylistically reminiscent of Annie Hall at times, being a father is key to the filmmaker’s work – Kenton also wrote Father to Fall – and the film can be seen as a love letter to his own place in his children’s lives but more importantly, how the two girls face the trials of life in an increasingly pressured and intense society.

Ending on a positive outlook and with a great sound mix (original tracks are also used from the multi-talented director’s own band Ist) the movie is all the more impressive for being filmed over just 19 days in and around Leicester. But most of all, I couldn’t help but think how the film showcased the exciting talents from its young cast who take centre stage with dazzling and bright performances.

From embarrassing fathers to eclectic mothers, the whimsical beats are cemented by the central characters in ‘onesies’ jumping from one scene to the next with a click of a finger. And from the audience reaction in the showing I was in, the viewer will want to leap into this exciting adventure with them. A superb first feature with a fast paced plot and assured control from director Kenton Hall, this is a Summer that you won’t want to end.

Michael Sales