Summoning Sylvia had some promise with its premise but it threw it all away to go with the most stereotypical option. The best part of the film is easily the twist. It’s unexpected and surprisingly heartfelt in a movie that feels surface-level. That’s the best way to describe this film. It’s not bad, it’s surface level. While watching this film, I was wondering why I overall didn’t find this film funny while I love Bottoms unabashedly. One of the reasons is the characters. The characters in this film are basic with only surface-level complexity. Some of them are straight-up annoying. The other reason is the comedy. The punchline is almost always “The characters are gay.” Bottoms is funny because there are a plethora of jokes, and it’s not just gay jokes. This combination of stale comedy and basic characters really hurts this film when the story is only solid. The brother-in-law’s character development was disappointing as well. It would have been so much funnier if they had this guy who seems homophobic turn out to actually be a supporter. But instead, they go in the most basic direction possible. Although Summoning Sylvia has problems, it’s not a terrible film. It’s overall constructed well and the short runtime never makes any moment feel like it’s dragging. I can see why people could like it, especially if you like the style of comedy and the characters. For me though, it wasn’t my thing and I’d generally not recommend it.
Summoning Sylvia had some promise with its premise but it threw it all away to go with the most stereotypical option. The best part of the film is easily the twist. It’s unexpected and surprisingly heartfelt in a movie that feels surface-level. That’s the best way to describe this film. It’s not bad, it’s surface level. While watching this film, I was wondering why I overall didn’t find this film funny while I love Bottoms unabashedly. One of the reasons is the characters. The characters in this film are basic with only surface-level complexity. Some of them are straight-up annoying. The other reason is the comedy. The punchline is almost always “The characters are gay.” Bottoms is funny because there are a plethora of jokes, and it’s not just gay jokes. This combination of stale comedy and basic characters really hurts this film when the story is only solid. The brother-in-law’s character development was disappointing as well. It would have been so much funnier if they had this guy who seems homophobic turn out to actually be a supporter. But instead, they go in the most basic direction possible. Although Summoning Sylvia has problems, it’s not a terrible film. It’s overall constructed well and the short runtime never makes any moment feel like it’s dragging. I can see why people could like it, especially if you like the style of comedy and the characters. For me though, it wasn’t my thing and I’d generally not recommend it.
