An Autumn Summer (2026) Movie Review: A harmless coming-of-age love story that ends up feeling empty and aimless

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Adorned by what the kids these days will call ‘vibes-before-anything else,’ Jared Isaac’s directorial debut – especially considering its indie roots and possibly minuscule budget – looks absolutely gorgeous. Shot with great care by cinematographer Brandon Somerhalder, “An Autumn Summer” captures a tumultuous time in the lives of young people. A time where all you want to do is have fun, but you also need to prepare for the inevitability of adulthood – moving away from home, breaking up with loved ones, deciding to settle in with the familiar because you are scared to grow, or simply avoiding tough conversations because you want to preserve the feeling of being in love with the feeling of belonging somewhere.

Issac’s film avoids meeting those deeply-seated feelings head-on, even as you realize they are on the precipice of rising to the surface. Instead, it opts for a carefree, meandering but entirely harmless hangout vibe that takes its picturesque Michigan lake-town as a backdrop to look at the romance between Cody (Sinking breakout Lukita Maxwell) and Kevin (Mark McKenna).

Mostly set around Kevin’s parents’ (played by Louise Barnes and Tony Horton) vacation home out there in the Michigan lakeside, the story begins when Cody, along with Jared (Jun Yu) and Martin (Julian Bass), arrives there for their last summer together before everyone goes to college. Jared and Martin are the kind of friends who are like a loving extension of both Kevin and Cody – their tight-knit friendship feels like it could never break, even if it faces every single odd hook that life throws their way.

The filmmaker chooses no major triggers or conflicts that will turn the tide off in “An Autumn Summer.” So basically, what you get is four friends hanging out together and enjoying what could be the last time they would see each other before adulthood hits them. While the lack of real conflict does not hinder the film’s gentle, loving flow, it also does not help with the film’s aimless and empty intellectual ramblings that do not add anything concrete to what it wishes to convey.

I understand that this is supposed to be a very personal snapshot that the filmmaker wanted to etch out of his memory and onto the screen, but ridding the film of any major conflict hinders the flow of the narrative in a way that its themes of ‘existing and being’ end up feeling docile. It also doesn’t help that it’s really hard to relate to these characters, whose entire vacation feels like it comes from a bubbled, privileged existence with nothing really mattering to them other than just being in love and bottling the real feeling deep into the fantasy world of the words they read and say out loud.

That said, the romance at the centre of the film plays out really well. Lukita and Mark have great chemistry with each other, and the rest of the bunch that formulates the story also feel like real people who love each other. If vibes are all you are looking for, “An Autumn Summer” might serve as an interesting diversion – although this coming-of-age love story ends up feeling empty by the time it ends.