Product Description

At Inkwell Beach, summer's never been so much fun! It's a time and a place where cool clothes, hot music, and good friends turn a dull family trip into the summetime vacation of a lifetime! Critics everywhere praised THE INKWELL -- the hot, big-screen comedy treat that delivers outrageous summertime fun and good time entertainment, all set to an irresistible soundtrack! Spend some time down at the shore with the funniest folks you're ever going to meet -- summer fun doesn't get any better than this!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18824 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-04-08
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.com
This sophomore effort by Matty Rich seems surprisingly run-of-the-mill, considering his first film was the low-budget success story Straight Out of Brooklyn.

Set in Martha's Vineyard during the summer of '76, this feels very much like an updated, African American version of Summer of '42. Larenz Tate is the shy teen from New York who, along with his politically radical parents, vacations with wealthy Republican relatives. When not confiding in his wooden doll, he learns a little about life and even more about sex. Inkwell, by the way, is the name of the beach where the African American population of Martha's Vineyard owns homes.

Clumsily written and executed, this is sweet enough on the surface, but too slick to feel genuine. Also released as No Ordinary Summer. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Customer Reviews

What Hostile Reviews!
How often dow we see movies about a teenage brother's coming of age that aren't violent or gang-related? Matty Rich(whatever he's doing now) did a superb job directing this film about an awkward teen vacationing with his parents in Martha's Vineyard visiting his well-to-do relatives.
He falls for the snot-nose Lauren who uses him to get back at her boyfriend who dropped her. Meanwhile he is also looking out for a married woman whose husband is cheating on her with other women.
It's a movie about growing up and what it means to be a person. Do all black movies have to be based on gang warfare and lewed sexual conduct?

I liked it
This was an interesting little flick about a troubled teen who escapes with his feuding parents to Martha's vineyard for a
mini-vacation after he nearly burns down the house. "The Inkwell" is the Black section of Martha's Vineyard. Set in the '70s,
this is a retro film that evokes a real sense of the period.

Granted, this movie does have its weak points, but I thought the overall product was not bad. Larenz Tate has proven himself
to be a chameleon morphing from a psychopath killer in "Menace to Society" to this odd character and then later becomes a
suave wordsmith in 1997's "Love Jones." He does well in this coming-of-age flick that explores a little shown facet of black life -- the upper middle class. Though the relatives who owned the house on the Vineyard seemed a little pretentious at first (Glynn Turman and Vanessa Bell Calloway), we see that they honestly love their family. Even the brother-in-laws with the conflicting political views (Republican Vs Black Panther) manage to make peace with each other in the end.

Drew (Larenz Tate) really was a weird character, but at least the role was a departure from the black male stereotype of the
cool thug. At least Matty Rich was not afraid to take a chance here with a different type of lead character. Jada Pinkett was
very good here as the spoiled rich girl who wraps the poor, socially-inept Drew around her little finger. And although his role was minor, Morris Chestnut was a convincing (and foine!) philanderer.

My one major complaint is with the mother daughter conflict. Although the two make up in the end, you never really knew what
they were beefing about. That could have been fleshed out a little more, but I liked that this movie was about a family trying to reconnect with each other. And I also liked that the characters were not total stereotypes. If only more Black filmmakers would take risks instead of giving us the same tired story again and again.

Good Movie
This is a good movie. I never even heard of Matty Rich, and was unaware of the movie altogether until stumbled across it this year. I was thoroughly impressed with the performances of Larenz Tate and Jada Pinkett Smith.

As an aspiring writer myself, I look forward to hearing a lot more from Mr. Rich in the nearing future. I thought the film was well developed, with a believable plot, and excellent development of character. I also enjoyed the fact that the character in which Mr. Tate was sheltered about a lot of things that in today's society is considered the norm for some minorities. I appreciated that because in a society of where today's youth are so bombarded with so many different things, and it is progressively getting worse as of this writing, it is good to have African Americans portrayed in roles that are less than the norm.

I applaud Mr.Rich for his creativity and for gleaning on events that somehow magnificently pulled this incredible movie together.