Movies love summer. The two just go together, kindred spirits dedicated to childhood, fun and escapism.
Hollywood saves its blockbuster entertainments for that period between Memorial Day and Labor Day, of course, but there is also that class of films that are set during, or otherwise pay homage to, the season of long days and warm nights. The other seasons must surely resent such cinematic adulation. Wintertime, when studios typically release their Oscar bait, comes closest, but most winter movies are less about the season and more about Christmas. Spring has a limited appeal at the multiplex, having its own romanticism. And autumn? Spare me. Autumn gets football and pumpkin spice, and that’s about it.
Here, in ascending order, are my picks for 10 movies ideal for summer viewing. Before you scoff at my omissions (although you’re welcome to scoff away), I am limiting myself to movies currently available for streaming. That means I’m excluding such summer-centric favorites as Jaws, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Adventureland, Stand by Me, The Sandlot, Call Me by Your Name, Midsummer, Moonrise Kingdom and Summer of ’42.
10- Piranha (1978)
We don’t have Jaws, but Piranha is the best of the rip-offs that came in the wake of that 1975 blockbuster. Director Joe Dante and screenwriter John Sayles inject fun and wit into what could have been just another cash-grab by Roger Corman’s New World Studios. A “No trespassing” sign ignored by drunken kids, a military experiment gone awry, genetically engineered killer piranha, a nearby summer camp – need I say more?
(Streaming on Amazon Prime, Peacock, Kanopy and Plex)
9- The Endless Summer (1966)
Even the most zealous surfing aficionado might be attention-challenged by all the action in The Endless Summer, but this cult fave is awash in goofy charm. Writer-director Bruce Brown tempers his loving homage to the sport with wry voiceover narration. While loads of footage highlight surfing legends such as Miki Dora, the documentary’s focus is on surfers Robert August and Mike Hynson as they ride the crest in Malibu, Hawaii, Australia, Africa – anywhere there are tasty waves to be conquered. A perfect film for hanging loose.
(Streaming on Amazon Prime, Peacock and Kanopy)
8- Dirty Dancing (1987)
While a quintessential movie of the 1980s, Dirty Dancing takes place in 1963, and leads Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey are about as unconvincing in that decade as the iPhone15. But this summer romance between a pampered rich girl and a dance instructor from the wrong side of the tracks is movie love at its most beguiling, with beautiful people having big feelings amid big production numbers. Is Dirty Dancing vapid or is it irresistible? It might be both but, as any fan of the picture knows, one thing is certain: Nobody puts Baby in a corner.
(Streaming on Peacock and Plex)
7- Summertime (1955)
We don’t all have the luxury of spending a summer in Venice, but at least we have filmmaker David Lean’s 1955 Technicolor romance in which Katherine Hepburn plays a “fancy secretary” from Ohio on a bucket-list vacation in the City of Canals. Her complicated fling with an Italian antiques dealer (Rossano Brazzi) admittingly carries a whiff of dated “spinster pity,” but Hepburn delivers a rich, affecting performance that earned her an Oscar nomination. And it is impossible to resist the enchanting visual feast that is Venice.
(Streaming on Max, Criterion Channel, Kanopy and Plex)
6. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel about class, wealth and murder has been fodder for some excellent movies and prestige TV, but The Talented Mr. Ripley is arguably the best of the lot. Matt Damon portrays Tom Ripley, a creepily charming social climber who tracks down and gloms on to a n’er-do-well playboy and his girlfriend (Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow) vacationing in Europe. Things eventually turn deadly, but writer-director Anthony Minghella juxtaposes this dark thriller against the sun-kissed beaches and villas of Italy.
(Streaming on Criterion Channel and Kanopy)
5- Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Teenaged boys out to get laid are a time-honored tradition in summer flicks, but director Alfonso Cuaron took the trope to a new level. Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal play horndog besties from upper-class Mexican families intent on sexual conquests while their girlfriends are in Italy for the summer (Italy must be quite the summer destination). The friends wind up on an impromptu road trip with a married older woman (Maribel Verdu). Against a backdrop of political unrest in Mexico, Y Tu Mamá También weaves a story about sexual awakening – this is one sexy movie – with deeper ideas about, well, life itself.
(Streaming on Netflix and Hulu)
4- Little Miss Sunshine (2008)
Family road trips are a summer staple, and Hollywood has effectively mined them for comic content. National Lampoon’s Vacation has its admirers, but I prefer this acid-dipped comedy of a severely dysfunctional family traveling from New Mexico to California in a VW microbus so that 10-year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin) can compete in a junior beauty pageant. The stellar cast includes Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carrell, Paul Dano and Alan Arkin (who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for it) – all of whom get respective moments to shine.
3- American Graffiti (1973)
Four years before he changed movies forever and two years after his directorial debut, George Lucas offered this lightly biographical confection about growing up in small-town California in 1962 before a slew of events – the Beatles, the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam – would upend everything. What American Graffiti lacks in plot, it makes up for in cool cars, a bitchin’ soundtrack and its nostalgic remembrance of being young and full of possibility. The extraordinary cast includes two native Oklahomans in Ron Howard and Candy Clark, along with Richard Dreyfuss, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford and Mackenzie Phillips.
(Streaming on Netflix)
2– Dazed and Confused (1993)
Writer-director Richard Linklater’s shambling comedy about Texas teens in 1976 at the advent of summer vacation does for GenX what American Graffiti did for Boomers. Like that earlier picture, Dazed and Confused is populated by young actors then on the cusp of stardom, including Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Milla Jovovich and a scene-stealing Matthew McConaughey. The keggers and potheads, the jocks and the hazing, and a classic-rock soundtrack – its recreation of the 1970s is, as essayist Chuck Klosterman observed, less about how things were and more about how things are remembered. And isn’t that ultimately what summer is about?
(Streaming on Amazon Prime)
1- Do the Right Thing (1989)
Arguably cinema’s greatest fictional narrative about race relations in America, Do the Right Thing also happens to be one helluva summer picture, chiefly in its richly evocative depiction of a sweltering summer day in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Writer-director Spike Lee turns the heat itself into a character, using it to ignite the simmering tensions of a neighborhood ready to literally and figuratively erupt. Its inventive camerawork, memorable music score and stunning ensemble cast – particularly John Turturro, Samuel L. Jackson, Danny Aiello and Bill Nunn – make Do the Right Thing a must-see.
(Streaming on Netflix)
Cutting to the Chase with Phil Bacharach 