There comes a point in everyone’s life where we want to escape in some form – whether from the humdrum nature of everyday routine, or from something deeper and more existential. There’s nothing quite as crippling as the loneliness that comes when we realise that we are all fighting battles entirely by ourselves, and that everyone we meet is merely a companion, more than a complete ally. This preamble is the key to understanding Pools, the directorial debut of Sam Hayes, in which we are introduced to Kennedy, a student at what appears to be a prestigious university, but who would much rather be anywhere other than the bland college town in which she has been forced to take up residence in the pursuit of a degree she simply does not want. Unfortunately, her entire life begins to revolve around seeking out some meaning, which consistently fails until she takes it upon herself to bring about that change. Recruiting a motley crew of fellow students, Kennedy spends a single, seemingly never-ending night meandering around the affluent neighbourhood of this town, with the intention of simply going for a swim to help deal with the sweltering summer heat. This act of youth-fueled mischief is secretly a means for these young people to rebel against the system, not being too concerned with the consequences lingering around every corner. A film teaming with potential, but which unfortunately falls victim to many of the same bland tropes that we usually find in these quirky coming-of-age films that aim to blend sardonic humour with heartfelt melodrama, Pools is an imperfect work, a film with good intentions but lacklustre execution that prevents it from ever sticking the landing or being as memorable as it seems to want to believe itself to be, a trap that many first-time features seem to fall into when it comes to establishing new voices in an industry that craves originality, when not everyone is entirely up to the task. A film that has good intentions but poor execution, we don’t find ourselves becoming particularly enamoured with Pools, which does very little to stand out in an era where these stories are a dime a dozen.

Anyone who has grown up in an environment where they had to actually work to achieve something (as opposed to having it handed to them) will undoubtedly recognise the themes that drive this film. Pools is a relatively by-the-numbers exploration of the trials and tribulations of a young woman who is desperately trying to find her place in the world – yet, despite all of her best efforts, she finds herself frequently being told that she is simply not good enough, at least from her perspective. The film touches on some complex ideas, which are intricately woven into the fabric of this story – and as a coming-of-age comedy, it examines these ideas with a sense of deep sincerity that is actively intriguing, even if the final product may betray the promise it held at the start. The core of what Hayes was trying to achieve here was to replicate a single day in the life of someone who has been standing at the very edge of complete collapse, but rather than skirting around the brim of the volcano in fear of falling in, she feverishly dances, knowing that some change has to emerge, even if her entire life ends up being derailed in the process. The director has spoken openly about his influences, which essentially run the gamut of conventional coming-of-age comedies, films that focus on teenage rebellion (although Kennedy is shown to be someone who laments her lost teenage years) and how it can sometimes manifest in unexpected ways. The themes that the director is exploring with Pools are very clear, even if they can sometimes be quite uneventful, which aligns very much with his interest in exploring the idea of someone yearning to understand herself through challenging the status quo, which some can misinterpret as needlessly pandering to the current generation’s desire to rebel, when in reality it speaks to something much more profound, reflecting common mentalities that we don’t always appreciate in the way that we perhaps should, but which we nonetheless can find meaning in, especially for those of us who are also caught in the awkward space between adolescence and adulthood – or even worse, have reached the other side of the latter and still feel completely aimless.

Unfortunately, despite its best efforts, Pools is not a strong film for the exact reason we would expect – it takes a derivative story (which is not immediately indicative of any shortcoming itself) and doesn’t do anything particularly memorable with the premise. The first sign that this film is struggling with its own identity comes very early on, when the frantic editing and rapid-fire dialogue become almost overwhelming. It’s not the fact that it is fast-paced that signals concern, but rather that, once we look beyond the quickfire, energetic style, we realise there is absolutely nothing of value being said. Instead, what we have is a film that conceals its flaws behind a thin veneer of cliche and convention, both of which it tries to hide, but anyone with even an ounce of logic can see right through it, which leads us to wonder why it didn’t just approach the subject from a more organic place. It also doesn’t help that Hayes is not entirely sure what he intended to make here – was he trying to craft a complex character study, an outrageous comedy or a quiet meditation on youth? While they are not mutually exclusive, it does require some degree of sincerity, which is the primary flaw that we find holds this film back and prevents it from doing anything even marginally interesting, which is a clear sign of something that we simply cannot take seriously, despite its efforts to infuse itself with grave, complex meaning. Hayes is not entirely ungifted as far as the aesthetic goes – Pools has some striking images, and his camerawork is strong. However, it ultimately means nothing when the surrounding story is so shallow that it feels like a case of using flashy, extravagant filmmaking as an excuse for the poor storytelling. The complete lack of a point of view is one of the many reasons Pools feels like it is rapidly approaching failure almost from the start, and its refusal to actually do something meaningful with its premise is clear from the start, which feels like a major oversight for something that had so much potential.

You would imagine that poor writing and questionable direction would at least be partially excused by good performances – but this is where we find Pools struggling the most, since it ultimately thinks that casting Odessa A’zion will resolve all of its problems. The daughter of the effortlessly likable Pamela Adlon, A’zion has rapidly been rising in stature – her recent work in Marty Supreme indicates that she is indeed very talented, but considering this film was produced and released mostly concurrently to it, it wasn’t built from her acclaim or success, and instead is designed as a starring vehicle for someone who has yet to find her own niche. Sadly, A’zion is talented, but she isn’t as immediately charismatic as this film would like us to believe – and when you are working with a protagonist as tricky as Kennedy, it can become a problem. She does very little to deflect from the fact that the character is quite simple, immature, misguided and frankly annoying, and no amount of confident wisecracks or offbeat jokes is enough to compensate for the many irritations that emerge as the story progresses. The rest of the cast doesn’t fare much better – Tyler Alvarez, Michael Vlamis and Francesca Cole do their best, but their characters are just as shallow and poorly written. Oddly, it is Ariel Winter who is positioned as the in-house veteran, and she works laboriously to shed her image garnered from nearly a decade of work on Modern Family, overextending herself in the role of a more loose cannon adversary to the protagonist, which becomes distracting. No one in Pools is atrocious, but they’re also not very good, and Hayes doesn’t do much to develop the roles beyond the bare minimum, turning the film into a lacklustre attempt at comedy that never really goes anywhere meaningful, despite having some promise lingering beneath the surface, which is a thesis statement for the entire film as a whole.

Pools is a film that believes itself to be far more profound than it actually is – the central motif is actually well-chosen, since this is a film that sees itself as having the depth of a luxurious swimming pool, but in reality is about as shallow as a puddle. Perhaps a slightly brutal way to describe it, but it does join a long line of coming-of-age comedies that are more focused on the spectacle than they are on delivering anything even vaguely of substance. This is just a bit of a chore to get through – it’s not unnecessarily long at 100 minutes, but its strange pace and lack of a coherent story make it drag on for much longer than it should have, both the writing and editing severely impeding the film and preventing it from doing anything even vaguely memorable. The overall experience is just a bland, lifeless attempt at relatable humour, written and directed by someone who thinks he is the voice of his generation, but seems to be out of touch with reality, crafting dialogue riddled with cliches to the point where even gifted actors seem to be delivering poor performances, driven by a desire to make a definitive text on the experience of being young and aimless, none of which actually manifest in anything particularly memorable. It’s a film that is easy to forget, and which we cannot imagine holding any cultural cache, other than potentially being used as a springboard for Hayes’ future endeavours (which we can only hope are better than this), and perhaps as an early example of A’zion’s acting work, since she seems poised to become a big star, even if this vehicle was far beneath her talents. A forgettable and trite coming-of-age comedy that goes nowhere, Pools squanders all of its potential, becoming nothing more than yet another entry into an already oversaturated genre that once again deserved more than this cliche-filled mediocrity.