When Amanda Gorman took the stage in January at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration, two things happened. One, she sparked a meteoric rise of her own accord, landing nationwide notoriety, book deals, and an IMG modeling contract. She also–maybe more importantly–normalized and encouraged younger generations to explore spoken word poetry for themselves, proving that age is not a factor when it comes to self-expression.

In his latest film, director Carlos López Estrada (Blindspotting, Raya and the Last Dragon) shows how the streets of Los Angeles are filled with inspirational youth who are ready to speak their truth in the spoken-word musical, Summertime. Like an indie version of In the Heights for millennials (complete with mixed races and various skin tones!), Summertime is a feel-good film full of literal visual poetry and promising artists of tomorrow.

The story of how Summertime came to be is just as impressive as the film itself. Together with López Estrada and Executive Producer Kelly Marie Tran, twenty seven youth poets workshopped their material over the course of one Summer in Los Angeles. The result is this feature film, a loose narrative structure comprised of intersecting stories from the poets themselves, all of whom make their feature film debut as co-writers and stars.

Depending on the scene (and therefore the dialogue), Summertime is a mix of emotional, comedic, and nostalgic instances that reflect the authenticity of the poets. One scene humorously calls out the prices at trendy Los Angeles eateries, and how a piece of avocado toast costs the same as basic livelihood necessities for lower income communities. Another scene shows an empowered queer woman giving a fierce monologue as she stands up for another same sex couple on a metro bus. Perhaps the most heart-wrenching scene comes in the form of a formally insecure woman finally standing up for herself to a manipulative ex-boyfriend.

I believe the success of Summertime comes from untraditional factors. The overall narrative and acting is fairly good, not outstanding, but what makes this film unforgettable is the outpouring of pure visual poetry (which outweighs any nitpicky criticism). Dave Harris, Mila Cuda, Olympia Miccio, Tyris Winter, Amaya Blankenship, Bene’t Benton, Hanna Harris, Marco Bizio, Raul Herrera, Bryce Banks, Marquesha Babers, Walter Finnie Jr., Anna Osuna, Zach Perlmutter, Jason Alvarez, Austin Antoine, Maia Mayor, Madyson Park, Xochitl Morales, Paolina Acuña-González, Marcus James, Gordon IP, Cyrus Roberts, Pathum Madigapola, Nia Lewis, Daniel McKinley, Khamal Iwuanyanwu, and Lukas Lane: job well done. Thank you for sharing your stories with us.

Distributed by Good Deed Entertainment. Now playing in select theaters in Los Angeles and New York. Expanding nationwide Friday, July 16.