Viewers don't need to have seen Grey Gardens to appreciate this picture, but after seeing it they'll most likely want to spend more time with the Beales.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 2, 2021

Heavy as it may sound, That Summer is mostly a fun 80 minutes spent in the company of charming characters.

| Dec 10, 2020

That Summer is more a well-edited curiosity than a fully realized documentary, but in this case, it works because the subjects are so captivating and bizarre.

| Jun 15, 2020

As a "prequel" look at the Beales, That Summer makes for a fascinating contrast between the icons they have been turned into and the people they were before then.

| Feb 14, 2020

With an eye on challenging or differently interpreting a modern American legend, That Summer could have been superlative. Instead, it just feels superfluous.

| Dec 10, 2018

Those who can't get enough of the Beales are likely to feel as if they've discovered a long-lost family photo album.

| Aug 9, 2018

Proving that there is never too much of a good thing, director Göran Olsson, creates the perfect prequel to Grey Gardens with this documentary.

| Aug 6, 2018

Whether you'll find this utterly fascinating or a glorified DVD extra depends entirely on just how obsessed with Grey Gardens you are.

| Jul 9, 2018

An odds-and-sods compilation that's even heavier on the squalor porn, That Summer is primarily for Grey Gardens completists...

| Jul 6, 2018

"That Summer" leaves me with Beale fatigue. It would seem to appeal to "Grey Gardens" completists only.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 5, 2018

The footage is interesting on its own, sure, but a lot of the impact is lost if you don't know the story behind it.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 2, 2018

The film's biggest revelation is Lee Radziwill herself -- looking as lithe as a teenager and even more beautiful than her sister.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 29, 2018

At just 80 minutes, That Summer is probably one for enthusiasts only, but existing fans will find plenty to savour.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 8, 2018

An impressionistic study of a moment in time in which the promise of the previous decade was being unceremoniously eroded.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 7, 2018

Its value lies less in its resurrection of footage long thought vanished than in the way that it has been co-opted, with remarkably little overt editorial interference, into an essay on the impermanence, persistence and importance of memory.

| Jun 7, 2018

Grey Gardens purists might find it jarring to see the isolated icons fully clothed and interacting with outsiders, but this prequel still contains plenty of tough love between two high-class outcasts.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 5, 2018

[That Summer] serves as a kind of prequel to Grey Gardens and, while niche market, it is fascinating as a portrait of the two women, and as a snapshot of a time and a side of American royalty.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 4, 2018

Olsson's approach to the footage mirrors that of the compulsive-hoarder subjects: keep everything, discard nothing. There's some treasure in there somewhere.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 3, 2018

Rats run through their litter-strewn mansion, and their rich Hamptons neighbours are clearly horrified, but there's a grandeur to the way they pick their way through the trash, seeing around them not a kip, perhaps, but a palace.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 1, 2018

Essential for Grey Gardens completists, but equally very niche.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 1, 2018