The first thing to get out of the way is that “Days of the Bagnold Summer” has nothing whatsoever to do with Enid Bagnold, author of “National Velvet” and “The Chalk Garden.” More’s the pity, as Simon Bird’s debut behind the camera, adapted from Joff Winterhart’s graphic novel, could use some of the depth and wit the earlier writer brought to her characters and their situations.
Not that the movie is aiming for the same sophisticated vibe – “Bagnold Summer” is about a teenage metalhead forced to spend the summer with his painfully square mother, and its influences come from small, genial American indies with a touch of minor — very minor — Mike Leigh.
But : rather too sugared, and immediately forgotten.Bird’s interest in a high school misfit can conceivably be linked to his starring role in the British coming-of-age series “The Inbetweeners,” though perhaps that’s
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