Finals, graduations, barbecues, baseball, summer jobs, summer camp, vacations… yes, friends, summer is upon us. What’s more, summer movies are upon us — more giant robots and superheroes and pirates and Vin Diesels than you can shake a stick at. It’s all pretty depressing, frankly.
So instead of looking at those summer movies, let’s take a look at some of our favorite films that are set in the summer. Summertime nostalgia is a powerful thing, and few screenwriters worth their salt can resist the opportunity to pen an introspective voice-over about the summer that changed their lives (“Nothing was really the same after that summer of 1963…”). After the jump, a brief survey of some of our favorite slices of summer nostalgia.
“Where were you in ’62?” asked the tagline of George Lucas’s 1973 smash, set on the last night of summer in Modesto, California. Challenged by his friend (and producer) Francis Ford Coppola to work up a warm crowd-pleaser following the failure of his first feature THX 1138, Lucas collaborated with screenwriters Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck for the Graffiti script, based on his teen years cruising the strip with his friends. The soundtrack bursts with terrific vintage tunes (spun by Wolfman Jack, who also turns in a pitch-perfect on-camera cameo) and the cast is stuffed with stars of the 1970s (and beyond) getting their big breaks — including Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Suzanne Somers, and Harrison Ford. Graffiti’s critical and financial success gave Lucas the clout to fund his next film, an obscure little space opera you’ve probably never heard of.
Comments (10)
Stand By Me, Dazed & Confused and Adventureland are three of my favorite films. I guess this is the sub-sub-genre for me.
Fun list. Thanks for giving me an excuse to update my netflix queue. Dazed and Confused, however, is already in my DVD player seeing as how it’s the greatest HS movie of all time (apologizes to Fast Times at Ridgemont High).
Now and Then
Nostalgia needs to retire.
There’s this one called Skateland that I haven’t seen, but man the post-production team make a good trailer.
Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night.
Wet Hot American Summer is so great. I wanna see it again.
Nicole Holofcener’s Walking and Talking with Catherine Keener, Liev Schreiber, and Anne Heche isn’t explicitly a summer movie, but I’ve always thought of it as a “summer in New York” movie. They’re staying in the city, working like ordinary New Yorkers, and then popping up to an upstate NY cottage with a handy swimming hole for breaks. Keener in her shorts.
Always makes me nostalgic for NY summers, esp. summer nights.
Speaking of 24-hour movies, has Flavorwire done post on best 24-hour movies? Or movies set within specific time limits? Other than American Grafitti and Dazed and Confused, for example, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Run Lola Run (though I think RLR is overrated), After Hours (brilliant), Do the Right Thing, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Training Day, The Breakfast Club, 25th Hour, A Single Man.
What about Say Anything…
Body Heat- turn off the lights and turn on the ceiling fan
[...] I think back about that summer…” goes the opening narration, and while plenty of films have centered on fond memories of summers past, Scenes from the Suburbs combines its bittersweet wistfulness with a dash of totalitarianism. It [...]
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