We’re sliding down the backside of summer and everything is damp with humidity and sweat and used pool towels. Summer also inspires a specific type of cinema. It's never too late to slip into some hot summer movies that focus on coming-of-age, adolescent freedoms, idle flights of fancy, momentary flings, and vacations to far flung locales. They sweat. They bake. They swelter and shrivel under the midday sun. These are some of our favorite “Summer Movies.”
Elaine’s Picks
The Way Way Back (Jim Rash, Nat Faxon, 2013)
A beach house, a station wagon, and a water park with a tube slide fuel this coming-of-age tale. It’s a familiar story, but the cast and the writing tell the story well. The movie stars Liam James, Toni Colette, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney. If you like this try Adventureland (2009) which was filmed at Kennywood and features a similarly bittersweet and comic tone.
My Donkey, My Lover & I (Caroline Vignal, 2020)
Antoinette’s summer holiday takes an unexpected turn in this French dramedy. This is a buddy movie—with unique buddies. It’s the journey, not the destination that matters. Vignal and cinematographer Simon Beaufils (Anatomy of a Fall) paints with the film camera.
500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009)
Screenwriter Scott Neustader describes 500 Days as an anti-Hollywood romantic comedy. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, the film dessolution of a new romance as the story bounces around chronologically to tell a clever yarn, full of heart and heartbreak.
Jay’s Picks
The Sandlot (1993) dir. David Mickey Evans
Few movies nail the beauty of a “wasted” summer with friends better than this 1960’s nostalgia-fueled baseball comedy. The Sandlot playfully explores coming-of-age, childhood mythmaking, and the value of legends. It’s lasting appeal can be attributed to its heart and quotable dialogue. (“You’re killing me, Smalls.”)
Summertime (1954) dir. David Lean
A tour of Venice through the eyes of an emotionally muted Katherine Hepburn on holiday. She’s a woman harboring uncertain pain until a smitten shopkeeper turns his attention toward her. As the threat of connection grows, Lean explores middle-aged anxiety, want, and the self-fulfilling prophecies of loneliness. Summertime feels slight – but it’s a deeply soulful and spiritual film.
Body Heat (1981) dir. Lawrence Kasdan
Kasdan transplants the golden age of the film noir into 1981 and this steamy thriller starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. The stunted double entendre, loaded phrasing, femme fatale, double (and triple) crosses. Body Heat also belongs among the sweatiest films of all time; you can feel the heat (temperature and smolder) right through your screen.