Indian Summer

A group of people who grew up at the same summer camp twenty years earlier are called back by its owner, who intends to announce his retirement. Now in their thirties, they spend a few days sleeping in the old bunks, playing the old games and noticing where their lives have gone since. There is a real place behind the film. Mike Binder spent his summers from 1966 to 1975 at Camp Tamakwa in Algonquin Park in Ontario, and shot the film there, at the actual camp. That is why the location never once reads as a set. Alan Arkin plays the owner, with Diane Lane, Bill Paxton and Matt Craven among the group. Binder's childhood friend, the director Sam Raimi, also appears in a part. Its flaw is population. There are too many characters, too little time for each, and nostalgia occasionally substitutes itself for the film. Dramatic conflict is very low. Who it is for: viewers who like gentle films about friendship and nostalgia. Who it is not for: anyone looking for story and tension.