Top 7 - Greatest Summer Films
The UK is currently gripped by one of the hottest summers in our history and it is July so now seems like a pretty great time to rundown the films that best encapsulate this magical season that is entirely unlike any other in the seemingly infinite possibilites it offers us. I've tried to judge largely by how well the films represent summer, not how much I like films that just happen to be set in summer so films like Before Sunrise and Dirty Dancing sadly didn't make the cut. With that said, let's get into the list!
7. The Seven Year Itch
Chances are, even if you haven't heard of this film, you recognise the image on the poster, which is the iconic scene from the film in which Marilyn Monroe's dress flies up as the subway train passes underneath. In fairness, it's a moment that has earned the status of iconic but it's a moment that is more a reflection of the actual plot and themes than one that is in any way integral. That aforementioned plot is of a family heading to the country during the hot summer but having the patriarch stay to work and earn money. Of course, the husband here gets up to hi-jinks in the boiling hot city, as the heat tries to lead him down the path of debauchery and into the arms of Marilyn Monroe. That feeling of being surrounded by humidity is present in each and every scene and plenty of the dialogue and Wilder is perfectly able to capture that feeling of how a temperature hike can almost create different rules in a city. Sure, the gender politics in the film are a little off but it's great fun and very summery.
6. Die Hard with a Vengeance
Die Hard 1 and 2 were both set around winter and the first film is still the very greatest Christmas film so setting the film in New York in the middle of a heatwave is a pretty awful idea. Except it really works, honestly. First off, the film opens with the song "Summer in the City" by The Lovin' Spoonful, a song that tells us immediately how the heat functions in this film, which is as something of a metaphor. See, at their best, the Die Hard films drip with tension, a tension that feels like it could boil over at any minute and what embodies that more than a heatwave in one of the busiest cities on Earth? The backdrop of heat allows the tension to start off high and it builds perfectly as villainous Jeremy Irons pushes the situation from racist signs to bombs big enough to kill thousands. If you love the original Die Hard anywhere near as much as I do, give it a shot. The setting is very different but the action proves just as effective.
5. Rear Window
This is the first of two films that make it in more on summer-ness than overall quality, I'm a little ashamed to say that I don't quite like Rear Window as much as many other people do and it probably wouldn't even make it onto a list of my favourite Hitchcock films. With that said though, it captures that stickiness and distrust that arrives alongside a heatwave superbly, to a degree that is impressive even for Hitchcock. The superb James Stewart plays Lindon Jefferies, a photographer whose leg is broken and in a massive cast, meaning that on a hot summer day all he has to do is stare out the window at his neighbours. There's a young married couple, Miss Torso, Mrs Lonely Hearts. And maybe, just maybe, there's a murder. Essentially, this is the classy version of Die Hard With a Vengeance in that the tension drips off the screen like sweat from Stewart's forehead. Most importantly though, this is a film that really couldn't take place at any other time of the year as that would rob it of much of its power.
4. Do The Right Thing
Do The Right Thing almost didn't make the list because I think as a film, it's just okay but I eventually realised it deserved not just a place on the list, but one this high up because of how well it portrays summer. For those who don't know, Spike Lee's film takes place on the hottest day of the year in Brooklyn as people of all ages, genders and races try to beat the heat. Unlike any other film on this list, Do The Right Thing captures every single aspect of what summer does to us, from the carefree lounging around to the anger that can build and build, making insignificant issues cause lives to change. Lee also builds in a lot of interesting racial dialogue into the film, from literal dialogue to minute actions. I'm not crazy on the film but one of the things it really does nail is that feeling of wanting to do anything to beat the heat and the otherworldly atmosphere to arises from that.
3. Y Tu Mama Tambien
This film marks the start of what I've accidentally curated as a trilogy of summer holiday movies, in which the tension the heat brings is replaced with a laid back attitude that loosens everyone up enough to open up new experiences. Unlike the other two films I'll go on to talk about though, you probably haven't heard of Y Tu Mama Tambien because it's foreign and now is my time to pitch it to you. It's the story of two teenagers who, in a summer when their girlfriends have gone on holiday, decide they should travel across Mexico with an attractive older woman in the hopes she'll sleep with them. Being a foreign film, Y Tu Mama is allowed... Let's say a degree of liberation with how it discusses sexuality and that freedom is everywhere in this film. In these glorious summers of youth, anything is possible and you do feel that. It may very well be my favourite foreign film and the scenes of cruising along the open road and dancing in the late night heat without a care show the world of summer I always dream of.
2. Wet Hot American Summer
Wet Hot American Summer earns its place on this list both for the actual content of the film and how I came to love it, the former of which I'll address first. See, this is a gleefully, joyously silly film, a parody film in the same vein as the legendary Airplane. What I mean by that is not just that it's very funny (it is) but that the parody elements are loose enough that even if you have no idea what kind of movie this is meant to parody, the goofiness of the characters and the sheer unbelievable nature of the events playing out in front of you will win you over. For me though, I love it because it reminds me of when I watched it, over a summer a few years ago where it kept me afloat. I wasn't suffering from any mental health issues or anything like that, I was just slightly lost and Wet Hot American Summer guided me. Hell, I think I watched the spinoff show twice that summer and the actual film three times in the space of about two weeks. It's just a burst of absurdist joy that reminds me of all the wonderful times that summer can and has given me.
1. Call Me By Your Name
I feel so guilty that I didn't see Call Me By Your Name when it first came out and that it missed my best of the year list that I've tried to praise its every virtue whenever I'm given the chance and honestly, this is a list tailor made for it. In fact, if you remember my review of the film (feel free to go back and check it out) I literally compared the experience of watching the film to an endless, warm summer. The sensuality pulls you in too, as these gorgeous Italian vistas are laid out in front of us, the characters lounge by bodies of water as if they haven't a care and of course, there is that through line of a young love, one that may well only be possible in the summer. It's tricky because words fail to capture the magic of CMBYN and the spell it casts on viewers. I've tried to summarise it before in my review and maybe come close but without repeating myself too much, the best I can say is that there may be no other movie that so effectively captures what it is to be young in the summer, a world of endless maybes and perhaps and joys that are never appreciated soon enough. If you haven't seen it yet, you absolutely have to.
7. The Seven Year Itch
Chances are, even if you haven't heard of this film, you recognise the image on the poster, which is the iconic scene from the film in which Marilyn Monroe's dress flies up as the subway train passes underneath. In fairness, it's a moment that has earned the status of iconic but it's a moment that is more a reflection of the actual plot and themes than one that is in any way integral. That aforementioned plot is of a family heading to the country during the hot summer but having the patriarch stay to work and earn money. Of course, the husband here gets up to hi-jinks in the boiling hot city, as the heat tries to lead him down the path of debauchery and into the arms of Marilyn Monroe. That feeling of being surrounded by humidity is present in each and every scene and plenty of the dialogue and Wilder is perfectly able to capture that feeling of how a temperature hike can almost create different rules in a city. Sure, the gender politics in the film are a little off but it's great fun and very summery.
6. Die Hard with a Vengeance
Die Hard 1 and 2 were both set around winter and the first film is still the very greatest Christmas film so setting the film in New York in the middle of a heatwave is a pretty awful idea. Except it really works, honestly. First off, the film opens with the song "Summer in the City" by The Lovin' Spoonful, a song that tells us immediately how the heat functions in this film, which is as something of a metaphor. See, at their best, the Die Hard films drip with tension, a tension that feels like it could boil over at any minute and what embodies that more than a heatwave in one of the busiest cities on Earth? The backdrop of heat allows the tension to start off high and it builds perfectly as villainous Jeremy Irons pushes the situation from racist signs to bombs big enough to kill thousands. If you love the original Die Hard anywhere near as much as I do, give it a shot. The setting is very different but the action proves just as effective.
5. Rear Window
This is the first of two films that make it in more on summer-ness than overall quality, I'm a little ashamed to say that I don't quite like Rear Window as much as many other people do and it probably wouldn't even make it onto a list of my favourite Hitchcock films. With that said though, it captures that stickiness and distrust that arrives alongside a heatwave superbly, to a degree that is impressive even for Hitchcock. The superb James Stewart plays Lindon Jefferies, a photographer whose leg is broken and in a massive cast, meaning that on a hot summer day all he has to do is stare out the window at his neighbours. There's a young married couple, Miss Torso, Mrs Lonely Hearts. And maybe, just maybe, there's a murder. Essentially, this is the classy version of Die Hard With a Vengeance in that the tension drips off the screen like sweat from Stewart's forehead. Most importantly though, this is a film that really couldn't take place at any other time of the year as that would rob it of much of its power.
4. Do The Right Thing
Do The Right Thing almost didn't make the list because I think as a film, it's just okay but I eventually realised it deserved not just a place on the list, but one this high up because of how well it portrays summer. For those who don't know, Spike Lee's film takes place on the hottest day of the year in Brooklyn as people of all ages, genders and races try to beat the heat. Unlike any other film on this list, Do The Right Thing captures every single aspect of what summer does to us, from the carefree lounging around to the anger that can build and build, making insignificant issues cause lives to change. Lee also builds in a lot of interesting racial dialogue into the film, from literal dialogue to minute actions. I'm not crazy on the film but one of the things it really does nail is that feeling of wanting to do anything to beat the heat and the otherworldly atmosphere to arises from that.
3. Y Tu Mama Tambien
This film marks the start of what I've accidentally curated as a trilogy of summer holiday movies, in which the tension the heat brings is replaced with a laid back attitude that loosens everyone up enough to open up new experiences. Unlike the other two films I'll go on to talk about though, you probably haven't heard of Y Tu Mama Tambien because it's foreign and now is my time to pitch it to you. It's the story of two teenagers who, in a summer when their girlfriends have gone on holiday, decide they should travel across Mexico with an attractive older woman in the hopes she'll sleep with them. Being a foreign film, Y Tu Mama is allowed... Let's say a degree of liberation with how it discusses sexuality and that freedom is everywhere in this film. In these glorious summers of youth, anything is possible and you do feel that. It may very well be my favourite foreign film and the scenes of cruising along the open road and dancing in the late night heat without a care show the world of summer I always dream of.
2. Wet Hot American Summer
Wet Hot American Summer earns its place on this list both for the actual content of the film and how I came to love it, the former of which I'll address first. See, this is a gleefully, joyously silly film, a parody film in the same vein as the legendary Airplane. What I mean by that is not just that it's very funny (it is) but that the parody elements are loose enough that even if you have no idea what kind of movie this is meant to parody, the goofiness of the characters and the sheer unbelievable nature of the events playing out in front of you will win you over. For me though, I love it because it reminds me of when I watched it, over a summer a few years ago where it kept me afloat. I wasn't suffering from any mental health issues or anything like that, I was just slightly lost and Wet Hot American Summer guided me. Hell, I think I watched the spinoff show twice that summer and the actual film three times in the space of about two weeks. It's just a burst of absurdist joy that reminds me of all the wonderful times that summer can and has given me.
1. Call Me By Your Name
I feel so guilty that I didn't see Call Me By Your Name when it first came out and that it missed my best of the year list that I've tried to praise its every virtue whenever I'm given the chance and honestly, this is a list tailor made for it. In fact, if you remember my review of the film (feel free to go back and check it out) I literally compared the experience of watching the film to an endless, warm summer. The sensuality pulls you in too, as these gorgeous Italian vistas are laid out in front of us, the characters lounge by bodies of water as if they haven't a care and of course, there is that through line of a young love, one that may well only be possible in the summer. It's tricky because words fail to capture the magic of CMBYN and the spell it casts on viewers. I've tried to summarise it before in my review and maybe come close but without repeating myself too much, the best I can say is that there may be no other movie that so effectively captures what it is to be young in the summer, a world of endless maybes and perhaps and joys that are never appreciated soon enough. If you haven't seen it yet, you absolutely have to.
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