You know that childhood is a thing of the past when everything makes you fear for the worst. A bunch of kids hopping along the highway, but you don’t see that. You don’t see what’s happening but what could happen. It’s two girls and a boy out in spaces that are populated by fast moving cars and abandoned houses. What’s going to happen next? Surely, those moments are only a build up to something ugly, something wrong and disgusting, something heartbreaking. But the absolute beauty of this film lies in the fact that it has all those moments and yet, it is not about them at all. Sunshine doesn’t exist so that it can be followed by fear and the dark. And though summer cannot last forever, it can live a little. Those darker moments are not what this film is at all. It’s a slice of life, melting cool and lazy on the tip of a tongue, warm ice slowly and gently lifting off of backs lolling about in the sun. Kids running wild, being kids, the world letting them be kids. Mean kids, bossy kids, annoying kids, kids with a personality. And they mess up sometimes, a lot of the times but that’s okay because it’s the summer and there are only so many of them before you grow up and there are none left.

Happiness is like walking on eggshells, it’s always too good to be true. One wrong step and it’s a fall down a deeper well. We long for it but once it’s in our hands, what are we to do with it? How do we hold it atop our heads and walk around to go about the motions of life? This film is those people that just go ahead and dance, do cartwheels, maybe a couple of spins too. Sure, things fall off and break apart but it’s better than being frozen solid by a fear of joy. Maybe we’ve been getting it wrong all along and happiness is not being happy but carefree.

All this really does sound quite cheesy and I still stand by my lifelong dislike of kids but it’s nice to be reminded every now and then that feeling good doesn’t have to be so hard or seem so wrong. Of course, with that being said, the most important lesson here is that everything will be okay for we have Willem Dafriend watching over us.

Watched for secret cinema