‘Chasing Summer’ review: Josephine Decker’s latest is smart, sexy Texas-set crowdpleaser

Dir: Josephine Decker. US. 2026. 90mins

Sometimes going back can help you move forward. That is the central idea of this bright and breezy indie comedy, scripted by its star, comedian Iliza Shlesinger, which gently pokes fun at smalltown Texas while also celebrating its quirks and community.

Bright and breezy indie comedy

It marks a further departure for director Josephine Decker, after 2022 young adult romance The Sky is Everything, from the woozy dislocating psychodramas like Butter On The Latch, Madeline’s Madeline and Shirley with which she made her name. She embraces and elevates this lighter material, while retaining a distinctively female gaze. The basic plot may not break new ground but it holds some surprises, and the romance scenes carry a surprisingly mature erotic charge. Chasing Summer is a smart, sexy crowdpleaser that should attract distributors who want to tap into female millennial audiences following its Sundance Premieres bow.

Relief worker Jamie (Shlesinger) is used to disaster zones, and arriving in the wake of floods and tornadoes, but she also views her small Texas hometown as a personal crisis hotspot that she left as a teenager amid swirling rumours. Just as she thinks she’s reached the pinnacle of her career, about to head to Jakarta with her long-term boyfriend, he ditches her and moves his new, younger girlfriend into their home, leaving her with little option but to return to the parents and place she’s been avoiding for about 20 years.

The reception of her parents (Megan Mullally, delivering her lines with a southern drawl that’s a punchline in itself, and Jeff Perry) highlights the fact that they don’t really understand either what she does for a living or where she’s been doing it – the misnaming of places she’s worked is a nice running gag. With a few weeks to spare until Jakarta beckons, Jamie agrees to help her sister Marissa (Cassidy Freeman), who was historically the underachiever of the family, with the seen-better-days roller rink she now runs. That’s where Jamie encounters her old flame, and source of heartache, Chase (Tom Welling), now a married dad but still giving her the eye.

As Jamie helps out while being hectored by Marissa, she bonds with her sister’s young adult staffer Harper (Lola Tung), who persuades her to come to a yard party. Like many scenes, this beer-fuelled hangout is shot with fluidity by Eric Branco. Visual rhythm is something Decker likes to play around with in general, utilising everything from long takes to quick cuts. Periodically the editing feels tight, as if some of the connecting tissue has been trimmed off, but better to be pacy than to drag.

If Shlesinger is in the market for suggesting it’s important to cut your former and current self some slack, she’s also in the business of a spot of middle-age wish fulfilment, as sweet-natured young hunk Colby (Garrett Wareing) takes a shine to Jamie. “I could have birthed you,” Jamie observes before immediately falling into his arms. The sex scene that ensues has the female gaze in mind and, like the others that follow, packs plenty of heat.

Jamie begins to discover that while her memory of what drove her out of town may be as acute as it was when she left, everyone else has a slightly different recollection of events – or barely remembers at all. Letting yourself be loved is not exactly an original message, but here it’s the comedy that counts and Schlesinger is generous with her script, giving even minor characters their fair share of jokes.