Losing a parent at any age seems like a devastating thing to experience, but especially during the formative early college years when you’re trying to figure your life out. Enter the independent drama film Pools by filmmaker Sam Hayes, about a young woman in Chicago named Kennedy (Odessa A’zion) who is failing college after her father died and tries to escape reality by having wild pool-hopping parties with a newly formed group of friends (for the most part).
The film kicks off with Kennedy floating at the bottom of a pool, meditating on life, until she has a vision of her dad. It was all a dream, but for the viewer’s sake, at least it was at the beginning of a movie as opposed to the end of a popular television series.
We learn through a narrator that Kennedy is taking summer school due to her recent poor academic performance, but instead of doing work, she draws. In the intense heat of the Chicago summer, she calls her school counselor, Miss Lewis (Suzanne Cryer), to find out about air conditioning, and then Miss Lewis gets distracted and starts daydreaming about the handyman outside of her window.
The tone of Pools oscillates between a comical farce, shifting to a party flick, and then eventually has deeper moments of loss and finding your direction in life. It’s an odd mix, but Hayes and the stellar cast make it work.
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“Pool hopping, having a party, and playing games in a stranger’s house.”
The cast is led by actress Odessa A’zion, who emotes the pain and the struggle to find herself quite authentically. The performance shows the promise of star potential in the making, because she has the skill and command of the screen instantly. Most people already know Mason Gooding from the horror franchise Scream and other films, besides being the son of actor Cuba Gooding Jr., and he continues his streak as a fun character here as Reed. Reed is a former jock who took too many hits to the head from football and just wants to be loved and accepted (but don’t we all?).
Michael Vlamis is a co-lead of the movie as Michael, the air conditioner handyman (who was ogled at the beginning), as his journey of struggling to stay employed is followed, until he crosses paths for a second time with Kennedy. Tyler Alvarez as Blake, Francesca Noel as Shane, and Ariel Winter as Delaney round out the party bunch who actually care for Kennedy.
The scenes that I enjoyed the most were of Kennedy and company pool hopping, having a party, and playing games in a stranger’s house, while escaping reality with the reckless fun of being young and carefree. Also, on the flip side of the coin, Kennedy is breaking down and confessing how she might just be a “fuckup” to Michael. That balance of fun with the drama is what makes it feel real.
We’ve seen coming-of-age dramas many times over, so Pools is not revolutionary in that sense, but the blending of genres and the top-of-the-line young cast are what make this film special. I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing Odessa A’zion for many years to come after this, and I look forward to seeing her grow, just as Kennedy did in this movie.
"…Hayes and the stellar cast make it work."
