Where creativity meets connection
Temperatures are rising, and the days seem to last forever. We can go away on holiday, or simply chill out on the streets of our neighbourhood. Summer means different things to different people. To celebrate the sun on oir faces, we thought we’d look at how the warmest season has been portrayed onscreen.
Do The Right Thing
New York City is a place of extremes. The winter is accompanied by 4ft of snow, while June and July are sweltering. In the endless heat of summer, tempers can fray – even between people who have known each other for years. And that is the central premise of this breakout hit.
Spike Lee’s 1989 analysis of racism, heritage and fractured communities is packed with energy and well-rounded characters. It contains an early outing for Samuel L Jackson, whose character Love Daddy, opens the film with some street wisdom about the heat. This is a film that perfectly depicts sweltering days and nights in an inner city neighbourhood. It’ll make you want to crack open a fire hydrant to dampen the dusty streets. Ultimately, this is a movie about normal people with normal hang-ups and interests, going about their day. It’s the odd little conversations and different dynamics between certain players which provide the most fascinating moments of Do The Right Thing.
There are also a few interesting examinations of attitudes around masculinity. Some of these might look weak by modern standards, but this was made when Hollywood still had a few lessons to learn. This journey to a place of better understanding and tolerance doesn’t require you to leave the block.
Insomnia
While Christopher Nolan is now famous for expansive blockbusters, his earlier work is unsettling and pathos-laden. That said, his signature of time dilation resonates through 2002’s Insomnia. It might be the closest he’s come to making a genre film, as the noir mystery action is torn screaming from the shadows and dropped into a town where the sun never sets.
Performed by a cast that includes three Oscar winners, the action revolves around a pair of detectives investigating a murder in a tight-knit community. An uncompromising score only adds drama to a film populated by dreamlike visuals and innovative editing.
While this might set out like a procedural cop drama, it takes on a surreal tone as the never-ending daylight hours and lack of sleep impact the protagonist’s judgment.
www.warnerbros.com/movies/insomnia
Adventureland
It seems like, if you’re of a certain background or income bracket, most Americans pack up and head to their holiday homes for two months every year. Those not so fortunate still get to take on summer jobs at popular tourist spots, especially if you need a bit of extra cash during the school breaks.
Adventureland takes us back to 1987, as a group of young people working at an amusement park attempt to navigate love, loss and self-discovery.
Our hero is James, a college graduate with dreams of staying in Europe. Unfortunately, his father has been made redundant, so the slightly awkward young man gets a job at a slightly shabby amusement park.
The cast certainly isn’t slacking off, as Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds and Bill Hader all turn in fine performances, a tightly written story delving into the complexities of familial relationships and raw aspiration.
Greg Mottola (Daytrippers, Arrested Development, Superbad) again shows his directorial capabilities, bringing to life this period piece without pandering to nostalgia or cheap tricks. Coming of age and establishing your true identity is a tricky process, and here it’s presented joyfully and authentically.
www.miramax.com/movie/adventureland
Jaws
There’s a reason why so many people in your parents’ generation are wary of beach holidays. Spielberg's watery parable of subconscious fear, deceit and consequence wowed the world with its innovative direction and cinematography. Few films had shown audiences the action from an animal antagonist's direct point of view, and none in this way before. Pack that with John Williams' iconic score, and you’ve got a film heavy on anticipation.
One thing missing is good decisions, as authorities in a New England tourist resort struggle to deal with a rogue shark. The Mayor is reluctant to close the beaches and destroy this community’s economy. So, it’s up to Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw to jump into a perilously small boat and go looking for the killer Carcharodon.
Despite some humble beginnings and an initial lack of faith from the studio chiefs, this is the film that created the entire ‘summer blockbuster’ trope. The mechanical shark they used might look a bit rubbish by today’s standards of special effects, but the lead-up to its appearance remains one of the most stressful sequences in cinema history.
Vicky Christina Barcelona
Before age and #MeToo caught up with him, Woody Allen was surprisingly prolific. Quite recently, he was squeezing out a feature film every year. As you’d expect, these were of varying quality, but his beloved European trilogy towers over the missteps. Of these, perhaps the Spanish-based Vicky Christina Barcelona evidences the director’s genius.
Vicky and Cristina are best friends, the former being somewhat traditional and the latter adventurous. They decide to spend the summer in Barcelona, Christina has relatives there, and Vicky has studied the region – although her language skills are lacking.
Into this comes Juan Antonio, an artist, complete sex-bomb and minor celebrity, whom the young women decide to accompany to Europe, as there might be an opportunity to sleep with him. Just as this love triangle seems to be taking off, his ex-wife turns up with a big bag of complications. But could something be worked out?
When the characters aren’t contemplating their space within an unobliging universe, we’re treated to a lush travelogue of Spain’s most picturesque city. Allen clearly has genuine love for the city of Miro and Gaudí, as it bursts to life in every frame.
This is another opportunity for him to dissect human nature, but it’s a long way from his more indulgent (and more celebrated) earlier works. The narrative is frothy, fantastical and flirty. Much like a whirlwind holiday romance, it sweeps us into a place where we can escape our normal mundanity, for as long as it is polite.
Midsommar
Off the back of his genre-defining Hereditary, Ari Aster takes a wander through the eternally sunny fields of folk horror. Florence Pugh dazzles as a bereaved young woman accompanying her dismissive boyfriend (and his equally unpleasant mates) to a festival which only takes place every 90 years. It might be a chance to escape and rebuild, whilst exploring a culture untouched by the corrupting nature of the modern world.
What starts as an idyllic retreat quickly turns bizarre and violent, as transgressions by these outsiders are frowned upon by the cult-like members of a small community.
Behind the unsettling story, there are themes of coping with vulnerability and the break-up of a relationship. Despite their apparent savagery, the residents of this tiny, remote, Scandinavian community might finally offer a sense of genuine belonging. But what are you prepared to give up to fill an aching void?
www.a24films.com/films/midsommar
Roman Holiday
Who hasn't wanted to zip around Rome on a scooter, while clinging onto Gregory Peck or Audrey Hepburn? Unfortunately, you can't travel with both as that would be a violation of Italian motoring regulations.
This is a film about abandoning responsibilities for a short while and experiencing everything life offers. Well, perhaps not everything. Despite being young, carefree and bang tidy, both protagonists see the end of the story with their virtue intact.
In a role that would win her an Oscar, Hepburn plays a princess who bins off her royal duties and absconds into the Eternal City’s streets.
She spends the day doing what normal people do: seeing the sights, getting her hair done and falling in love with a journalist who knows exactly what she’s up to. There’s undeniable chemistry between the pair, as this tale of freedom, compromise and identity makes us crave a happy ending.
Rome is almost its own character in this film, from the Colosseum to the Spanish Steps, the dizzying cinematography captures the true essence of this ancient capital. Perhaps this is what gives the movie its timeless sensibility, or maybe it’s the universal themes which have made so many fall in love with it.
www.paramountpictures.com/movies/roman-holiday
Summer Holiday
Stop sniggering at the back! I’m standing up for this cheeky slab of swinging sixties fun. The story of some mechanics who somehow borrow a red London bus from work, fill it with lady-friends, and head off across Europe is crammed with youthful exuberance. Filmed with a ferocious colour palette, it perfectly captured the optimistic beginnings of British pop culture and offered a peek at a world beyond windswept Lancashire seaside resorts.
While its star, the evergreen Cliff Richard, is now mostly known for unsettling calendars and religious songs, this breezy 107 minutes of bubble-gum fun perfectly displays how he became such a massive star.
And then there’s the soundtrack, which includes several songs from Cliff. Up to this point, there were no homegrown big-budget pop musicals. Youngsters must have been thrilled to have their own version of Elvis.
This bunch of friends are intending to holiday in the south of France, but get distracted and end up in Greece. What they find along the way is a Europe rebuilding after a devastating world war, a huge dog and a mime artist, along with plenty of encounters with the authorities and culture clashes. The moral of the story? Don’t be afraid to make it up as you go along, even if you accidentally propose to a local girl.
In The Heights
It’s summer in the city, and members of an immigrant community all consider their identity and aspirations. Is New York City going to make their dreams come true?
Directed by Jon M Chu, who is no stranger to creating huge spectacles, and based on the musical by Lin-Manuel, we venture into a vibrant neighbourhood filled with hip-hop, jazz and salsa. Every set-piece pushes at the edges of the screen, and even when the entire cast aren’t singing and dancing, this is an environment which feels alive. From the stoop steps to the bodega, you’ll struggle to find a more earnest portrayal of the American Dream.
There are many parallels with West Side Story, the original film version of which was released long after its setting had been swept away in the name of progress. The neighbourhood of Washington Heights featured here is already becoming gentrified and returning to its former old-money glory. In some ways, that highlights how “belonging” isn’t a permanent state, but often a succession of moments when you feel all is right with the world today.
www.warnerbros.com/movies/heights
Point Break
Moving around the world, chasing the biggest waves and committing robberies to fund an adrenaline-filled lifestyle, Patrick Swayze and his gang of extreme sport criminals have landed in Los Angeles.
Standing in the way of glory and endless wealth is a young FBI agent, who has to bear the burden of being called Johnny Utah. A former football star, he realises the only way to catch this gang is by spending all his days at the beach and learning to surf.
For once, there’s a film where the most bonkers thing isn’t Gary Busey. Fold in ludicrous stunts, an increasingly preposterous plot and a youthful sense that nothing can harm you, and it delivers a blockbuster unlike any other.
Even the cinematography evokes the changing seasons, starting off with the fresh colours and ending in the freezing rain. Granted, this is a film that relies more on pure style than understanding character motives, but when you have the gloriously bizarre sight of guys in Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon masks holding up a bank, such details don’t really matter.
www.iconfilmdistribution.co.uk/our-films/point-break
Stuart Rolt
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