Film Review – Pools

Writer/director Sam Hayes investigates the troubled heart of a wayward college student in “Pools,” which represents his feature-length filmmaking debut. He’s not breaking new ground with the endeavor, following the low impulse control of a young woman going through plenty of things as she seeks to cool off during an impossibly hot day without access to air conditioning, seeking relief for more than just heat-related issues. The material is something of a “Breakfast Club” riff in the way it investigates a group dynamic of characters attempting to communicate with one another, but Hayes remains a tad livelier with the offering, which utilizes snappy moviemaking and an occasionally broad sense of humor. “Pools” isn’t profound, but it sustains interest in emotional lives and strange encounters, and Hayes mostly keeps the picture moving as he looks to depict the frustration of a person who feels trapped in their own life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com