ARTICLE: On Losing It All and Gaining Back My Voice, January 22, 2025 Published by: Talkhouse

Veteran producer Summer Shelton details her intimate journey making her debut feature as actor-writer-director, the romantic drama You & I. 

REVIEW: FILM THREAT You & I, December 30, 2024

After watching You & I, writer/director/star Summer Shelton has thought about this subject for a long time. This is evident in the subtle emotional performances of Clayne Crawford and her. Much of the story comes from what is written in her script and what is not written in her script. Regarding the performances, Shelton and Crawford have a loose and casual rapport. At certain obvious moments, there is a great deal of dialogue between the two leads and it comes across as natural…very “method,” if you will. Grounded and authentic…never feeling like they’re merely reciting lines of dialogue. (Score: 8/10)

VIDEO INTERVIEW: GOOD DAY NEW YORK, Clayne Crawford and Summer Shelton dish on upcoming SLATED movie, November 20, 202

VIDEO INTERVIEW: LIVING LIFE FEARLESS, Summer Shelton on Her New Movie ‘You & I,’ Blockbuster, Filmmaking, Indie Film, and More

REVIEW: FILM OBSESSIVE You & I Exudes Restrained Maturity, November 19, 2024

Led by Shelton calling the shots, the two offer a pair of truly sublime performances. Sarah and Joseph are more stalwart than desperate. Sharing difficult scenes together, it’s marvelous to observe the trust they let each other have in their moments to embolden a stance or unravel one in front of the other. Their pauses and stares often sear greater than their words. 

INTERVIEW: SLUG MAGAZINE, October 17, 2024

There are times in life when each of us yearns for a second chance at something that fell through our fingertips, whether it’s a failed romance, a missed career opportunity or merely the chance to say something we should have said long ago. In the new film You & I, first time writer director Summer Shelton and actor Clayne Crawford explore this theme, both on screen and off.

VIDEO INTERVIEW: FAMILY MOVIE TIME PODCAST, June 20, 2024 Host: Jeff M. Giordano

 

ARTICLE: CINEMA FEMME Wrap-Up of the 2023 New Orleans Film Festival, November 29, 2023

I so loved Summer Shelton’s “You & I.” Her feature directorial debut was a gem with so many different facets and edges, and complexities of beauty. It’s a sexy film, with intense emotions. Great supporting role by Ashley Shelton. I got to see the Q&A with Summer after the film screened. She shared that she came up with this film during the pandemic, and that this film wasn’t a true story, but was inspired by aspects to her past relationships. You can tell that she let her heart bleed through this project, and it shows through the performances, and the delicate edits of this painful love story.

VIDEO INTERVIEW: IONCINEMA, November 23, 2023 Host: Eric Lavallée

Not unlike how a young Athina Rachel Tsangari ended up being part of a Richard Linklater film, Summer Shelton has been part of the fabric of the American indie scene dating back to a bit appearance in a David Gordon Green’s All the Real Girls. After cutting her teeth as a producer (with a pair of prominent titles in the cinema of Ramin Bahrani), Shelton would put all of one’s chips on the table with her feature debut You & I. A second chance at romance or a proper visit with the past, Shelton is joined by Clayne Crawford for a drama romance that re-examines a dynamic (was it ever meant to be more?) and asks the honest questions. I got to speak to Summer at the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland – the lieu for the international premiere – chatted about embracing the long-take, how she found her co-lead and how she collaborated with Clayne Crawford and the odd documentary film that would become a surprising source of inspiration for her debut.

ARTICLE: ANTIGRAVITY MAGAZINE Last Looks: AG Picks for the 2023 New Orleans Film Festival, October 31, 2023

Summer Shelton does most of the heavy lifting in her first feature You & I, a romance about rekindling and reconsidering lost loves and what might have been. On top of penning her directorial debut, she also stars as Sara, either the You or the I the title speaks of, depending on how you look at it. On a trip back home to Knoxville to celebrate a mutual friend’s birthday, Sara runs into Joseph (Clayne Crawford), and the two tensely reconnect after years apart. An accident of circumstance leaves the two of them alone at his house after the small celebration, and what unfolds feels like a stage play as the former couple descends into the maelstrom of their past relationship. Through long takes and emotional dialogues, Shelton carries a film that leaves the audience questioning the past, present, and future of Sara and Joseph’s love, while pondering the parallels of their own current or former relationships, and other What Ifs. —Carlos Molina

ARTICLE: Produce Your Life Like You Produce Your Films, July 31, 2018 Published by: Dear Producer