Peak Season
Steven Kanter and Henry Loevner join forces again following their COVID set breakup comedy “The End of Us” with their sophomore feature, “Peak Season.” Engaged couple Amy (Claudia Restrepo) and Max (Ben Coleman) escape from NYC to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for a breather as they tie up loose ends before their wedding. And while towering mountains and sprawling landscapes are the perfect backdrop for love, it’s not the betrothed who find it.
Max is an inattentive narcissistic workaholic. Although “Peak Season” tells us he loves her, the fact of their engagement is the only proof we see. Their conversations feel forced and awkward, Max frequently talks over Amy to assert his own will or opinion. More often than not, her requests to spend time together are met with mild dismissal or outright abandonment (like when he ditches their hike to take a workout class with a female acquaintance they ran into). So when his job (as an uninspired character who works in supply chain management) calls him back to the city midway through their vacation, Amy is left alone sorry has the privilege of entertaining herself.
Attending their scheduled fly-fishing lesson by herself, she meets Loren (Derrick Joseph DeBlasis), the town’s beloved outdoorsman who splits his time between giving fishing lessons, climbing rocks and washing dishes at a local establishment. But despite working every gig available in this nature-centric economy town, he can hardly make rent. He lives out of his SUV and showers with water from a canteen rigged up in a tree. They hit it off and strike up a fast friendship that teeters on something more and makes them question if they’re really satisfied with what they’ve got going on.
The principle in “Peak Season” is settling, whether it be romantically, personally, or otherwise. This movie takes its time to blur the line between platonic and romantic connection around them while love foils Max and Loren. It does this by allowing such a relationship to grow through the film rather than resorting to a cliché love at first sight narrative post lesson at a Western bar where they meet. They giggle together at rodeos; they argue about giving advice on settling down with Loren’s friend in an appropriately head butting manner. As much as it may seem simple that there should be some sort of theme about setting somewhere along the lines of this storyline however, there isn’t anything more obvious than what “Peak Season” wants us all to know.
In this debate scene between Amy and Lauren about comfort versus passion/stability over freedom being important values for them individually points out exactly what kind of choices these people have been making throughout their lives which leads me wondering If she loves Max then should we ask ourselves ‘does she actually like him’? Unfortunately though, while bad even in terms of badness because he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever apart from general good naturedness towards others who deserve better treatment than himself such as always acting selfishly while putting others down or saying cheesy things among other things too numerous to mention here.
Some performances are lacking in “Peak Season.” DeBlasis steals the show his performance feels like an entire person has been brought on screen, something Coleman and Restrepo can’t quite seem to manage with their characters who feel one dimensional throughout most of the film until near its end when Restrepo gets some redemption during its final act yet every decision made by Coleman seems plain as day from start till finish so you wonder why bother showing any growth for her at all if this is how everything will play out anyway?
“Peak Season” is basically a charming reflection of the stalemate that occurs when you fear courage and comfort equally. It has its moments, especially towards the end, but for much of the movie I found myself disengaged because it was hard to care about what was happening on screen. “Peak Season” feels like a movie made by friends sometimes this can be charming in its intimacy and small scale, at other times though, it pokes holes in the fourth wall and breaks immersion.
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