27/09/2025
Be "Mindful" of this review from KPFK Film Club and stream INFINITE SUMMER for FREE with your 7-day trial to IndiePix Unlimited on Prime Video Channels: primevideo.com/detail/0PRWE6DD6GEIZNAS7JMSQZTJB7/
KPFK Film Club Review: INFINITE SUMMER
Despite Jefferson Airplaneâs admonition to âfeed your headâ, itâs probably best to avoid adventures that mess with your brain.
In Spanish writer/director Miguel LlansĂłâs quirky sci-fi thriller, INFINITE SUMMER, three girls on a beach house vacation in Estonia, just desiring a little summer fun, discover this lessonâŠthe hard way. Because of their experiments with a mind-altering app/respirator, what they encounter, instead of fun, is a hallucinatory nightmare.
The device alters their bodies, puts one girl in the hospital, and subjects them all to mysterious forcesânot to mention putting them in the middle of a criminal investigation with Interpol.
The story begins as a teen drama, dealing with ever-changing friendships, cliques, and alienation. It then morphs into a psychedelic cosmic thriller. Likewise, the style and mood also shiftsâfrom a lighthearted retro 70âs summer vibe, to something more surreal and suspenseful, featuring cosmic CGI hallucinations and altered states gone dangerously haywire.
The story centers on a shy but intelligent high school grad, Mia (Teele Kalijuvee-OâBrock). Sheâs an Estonian girl who has a summer job at the Tallin Zoo. Mia hooks up with her older best friend Grete (Johanna-Aurelia Rosin), for a vacation at a lakeside cabin.
Grete has just returned from London, and has brought along her worldly Canadian friend, Sarah (Hannah Gross). The pair now make Mia feel like quite the fifth wheel. Thereâs almost a mean girl vibe towards Mia, as the girls make plans around partying and boys. We eavesdrop on intimate, and sometimes crude, conversations that seem to make us privy to the immature and unsophisticated way that these young girls relate to life and to each other.
Tech is somewhat more advanced in this tale (ex. allowing for holographic phone calls), so itâs become even more of a refuge for the lonely. Mia turns to a new holographic dating app called Extreme Dating, and meets a long-haired hippie weirdo who calls himself Dr. Mindfulness (Ciaron Davies). Somehow able to misappropriate her address through the net, he shows up at her cabin late one night, and convinces Mia to use one of his new inventionsâthe Eleusis app.
The device, which looks like a huge mask/respirator, is hawked as a âmindfulness appâ which will amplify all your âgood feelingsâ and facilitate enlightenment through the use of a lavender, gaseous psychedelic drug. At first, Grete and Sarah make fun of Mia for her experimenting with the mysterious and suspicious machine, but then they themselves become hooked on it (through the promise of an or****ic experience), with serious and bizarre consequences.
We learn that the girls are not alone in this. Dr. Mindfulness is suspected of being involved in an international conspiracy that has something to do with âglobal transhumanismâ, involving a transition from the âphysical planeâ to something more âcosmicâ. Detectives Katrin (Katariina Unt) and Jack (Steve Vanoni) suspect that Eleusis inflicts physical and mental harm on its users, and perhaps even worseâŠthat young people will eventually give up their freedom, individuality, and humanity to the technology, all under the guise of a âmindfulness app.â Mia, the least afflicted, then becomes caught in a conflictâdoes she rescue her âfriendsâ, or join them (and perhaps avoid the real coming-of-age challenges that sheâs facing.)
The phenomena of using drugs to âtune in and drop outâ is nothing new to folks that actually came of age in the sixties, even down to the lure of escaping reality, achieving âenlightenmentâ, and reaching a ânirvanaâ of transcendental spiritual awakening. INFINITE SUMMER, however, throws technology, including elements of AI and AR, into the mix, upgrading the story to a more modern, and even more trippy, but still cautionary, tale. The film also incorporates female coming of age, low budget, low-fi, and indie vibes as part of its stylistic charms, even as it warns us of the dangers of technological distractions and dependencies. INFINITE SUMMER seems to suggest that summers are not supposed to be âinfiniteâ, and that âunplug and relateâ might be a far better anthem than Timothy Learyâs âtune in and drop outâ.
INFINITE SUMMER, the genre-bending sci-fi thriller, exclusively premiers on IndiePix Unlimited on 9/26
Get more info: https://indiepixfilms.com/
Enjoy the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM10MNzgj-Q
