How I Spent My Summer Vacation Reviews

It may be a little rough around the edges, but don't let that put you off. Writer-director John Fisher's no-budget debut is a refreshingly intelligent and very funny look at the fine art of breaking up. Fisher's film chronicles one summer in the love lives of Perry (RonReaco Lee) and Stephanie (Deanna Davis), two African-American college juniors caught in a romantic rondelet of make-up and break-up. Although they're both sticking around campus for summer break, Perry and Stephanie decide to spend the time apart, an arrangement that bothers Stephanie but suits Perry just fine -- at first. As the summer wears on, Perry misses his ex more and more, but it's too late: She's moving on and now has other fish to fry. Set up as a series of he-said/she-said interviews with accompanying vignettes, and punctuated by a hilarious running commentary by their friends (including E. Roger Mitchell, Maude Bond and Mike Ngaujah), Fisher's film is full of sad but true observations about the realities of sex and romance. The battle of the sexes may be the oldest story in the world, but with the help of some solid acting and lot of self-confidence (he uses flashbacks and fantasy with the same charming nonchalance as the young Spike Lee), Fisher makes a well-worn premise look shiny and new.