Summer of 69 2025 Movie Review
Jillian Bell’s Summer of ’69 arrives with a breezy, retro vibe and a provocative premise: a quirky teenage girl, played with energetic charm by Chloe Fineman, hires an exotic dancer to seduce the boy she’s been silently obsessing over. The film leans into its absurdity with gusto-mixing coming-of-age awkwardness with raunchy comedy and a touch of faux empowerment.
Fineman’s comic timing helps sell the film’s zanier beats, and Bell’s direction keeps the tone playful and nostalgic. But beneath the neon lights and indie soundtrack lies a concept that, flipped on its head, would likely never make it past the development stage.
Imagine this same movie, but with a male lead who hires a male stripper to seduce a shy girl he likes-an act of orchestrated manipulation and deception. It wouldn’t be pitched as charming, empowering, or “bold”-it would be condemned as creepy, predatory, and exploitative.
The fact that Summer of ’69 receives praise under the banner of female agency is a textbook case of Hollywood’s selective morality. The film wants to have it both ways: to push boundaries and embrace empowerment, while ignoring the ethical questions that would be front and center if the genders-or orientations-were reversed.
In the end, Summer of ’69 isn’t edgy or revolutionary-it’s a symptom of a larger double standard. Hollywood feminism, at least as it’s practiced here, often boils down to swapping male misbehavior for female “empowerment” without reevaluating the behavior itself. What’s sold as subversive comedy is, in truth, just manipulation in a different outfit. Fineman is talented, and Bell shows directorial flair, but no amount of charm can mask the hypocrisy.
