Summer of Dreams

Year: 2016

Actors: Lauren McNamara, Pascale Hutton, Nicole Major, Marcus Rosner

Duration: 84 min

A pop star for approximately thirty years since she was fifteen, Debbie Taylor has led a superficial life without really knowing it. She begins to understand it when everything in her life falls apart. Her singing career already almost non-existent as a so-called has-been, the record label which was established on her name drops her, with no other ready to sign her. She is a jet setter who has gone into debt in the expectation that she could always release another record to make more money. On top of these professional problems, she and her actor boyfriend Liam break-up on the discovery that she didn't mean as much to him as he did to her. Not knowing what to do, Debbie heads to Youngstown, Ohio to live with her sister Denise, her husband Tim and their adolescent daughter Natalie, who eventually come to realize that her stay is not just a simple vacation as she had implied. Denise had already suspected something as Debbie and she never really understood each other's lives, Debbie who would never just drop by. While Debbie lounges around reassessing how to get her singing career back, Denise knows that she has to get a job, which Denise, a high school assistant principal, offers her: teaching the after school music program at her school, its purpose being for the group of eight students to prepare a song to perform at the upcoming prom. Debbie reluctantly accepts the job using her birth name Debbie Delvecchio both in the off chance that someone possibly would recognize her and/or not to be associated as family to Denise. Although slow to connect with the students initially treating them like an audience of her fans, Debbie finds that she becomes an integral part of their lives - each who has a different issue - as they are with her in finding satisfaction in being a mentor to them. Beyond some issues with the program which she has to overcome, Debbie has to decide where her priorities lie if she is given another opportunity closer to her old life, her new life which also includes a burgeoning relationship with the school's guidance counselor, Noah Burns.—Huggo

Genre: Action   Drama