Beach readings, grilled corn, baseball: these are the indulgences of summer. Movies too, especially when it’s hot outside and the coolest remedy is to stay home with a movie and a pitcher of cold lemonade.
Summer is the season for fantasyland, escapist cinema, which is why we asked each of our genre columnists to choose a streaming movie that screams summer. Blame it on 2022 upside down, but their picks turned out to be not so sunny. Instead, there’s a runaway bus, an alien invasion, a woodsy psychopath, and sweaty elitists with jaded dispositions.
In these films, it is summer, but life is not easy. It sure is fun to watch, though.
Pop quiz, hot shot: Why is ‘Speed’ such a heartbreakingly fantastic summer spectacle? Maybe it has to do with maniacal Dennis Hopper playing Howard Payne, an embittered retired cop who plants bombs around Los Angeles so he can reap a reward far greater than the flimsy gold watch he received from the department on his retirement? Or maybe it’s the goofy, murderous glee he displays when he handles smart young SWAT officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) into a bus ready to explode if the vehicle stops, slows below 50 miles per hour, or if Jack tries to evacuate one of the hostages?
In this way, director Jan de Bont’s “Speed” is emblematic of other big hit action thrillers of the 1990s, such as the “Die Hard” or “The Rock” series, in which major explosions and large pursuits are initiated by terrorist enemies. What separates the film from others of the same ilk, however, is the dynamic, youthful romance shared by Reeves as Jack and Sandra Bullock as the unassuming wildcat and accidental bus driver Annie Porter. Jack and Annie’s passion grows with every hairpin turn, tonally put together by editor John Wright, and with every intimate close-up of Jack guiding Annie through Payne’s multiple attempts to destroy the bus.
The film’s iconic scene, in which Jack and Annie escape from the vehicle, entwined in each other’s arms as they slide across a floorboard on an airport tarmac, is the faint stuff that action movies are made.
— Robert Daniel
One of my horror-guilty pleasures is this summertime slasher movie that was set in the Northern California wilderness in 1981, which was almost called “The Forest PrimEvil.” The film is spooky, atmospheric, and boasts a star-studded cast — for the ’80s, that is — that includes Daryl Hannah, Rachel Ward, and Adrian Zmed.
The story is pure formula: young people from a rural camp go into the woods to have sex, test their survival skills and share ghost stories, including one about a deranged woman who lives among the trees. The kids should have listened to their bus driver (a wild-eyed Joe Pantoliano) when he warned them not to take this trip because a sick fat man, camouflaged in a coat of forest detritus, is killing their friends. The final account with the maniac is so dazzling you’ll forgive the abrupt ending.
What makes this a terrific summertime scare is how director Andrew Davis (“The Fugitive”) finds both beauty and menace in the season’s natural pleasures: rushing waters, camaraderie around a campfire. camp, sunlight through towering redwoods. Much of the action takes place in the wilderness, giving the thrills a touch of sweaty survival, but Davis always stops to paint quiet moments with shrewd, spectral creepiness. I’m also a fan of the interracial cast – unusual for early ’80s horror – and the 83-minute running time. Plus, streaming is free.
Stick to “Friday the 13th” for the summer horror you know. For an unexpected alternative, this sleeper is worth your time.
— Erik Piepenburg
Science fiction
“Independence Day” (1996)
Stream it on Hulu.
Twenty-six years ago, Roland Emmerich delivered the quintessential summer blockbuster: big, loud and unapologetically fun. The timing couldn’t have been better, either: Not only does the movie come out on July 3, but the action takes place over the three days of the title party. That time frame, however, is the only thing restrained about “Independence Day,” which revels in gleeful, ridiculous exaggeration.
The pitch is simple: the aliens have chosen the American holiday to attack Earth, and only President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman), fighter pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith) and sexy engineer David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum ) are standing in their way. “I could have been at a barbecue!” Rails Hiller in a classic scene. Humanity thanks him for his service.
“Independence Day” is full of oversized shots, like Air Force One taking off in front of a firestorm and a fleet of RVs driving through salt marshes. But the effectiveness of the film lies in its skilful balance between the oversized and the minute. One second, spaceships annihilate entire cities; the next day, Smith punches an alien in the face. And let’s not forget the memorable character actors who bolster supporting roles, from Brent Spiner’s Area 51 scientist to Randy Quaid’s crop dusting pilot.
Although it arrived at half past two, “Independence Day” is remarkably fast, especially compared to our modern forest giants. Perhaps we should thank Emmerich, a disaster writer with a genuine talent for entertainment, for his service as well.
— Elizabeth Vincentelli
International
‘La Ciénaga’ (2001)
Stream it on HBO Max or Criterion Channel.
You could watch “La Ciénaga” in an air-conditioned room in the cold depths of winter, and you’d still find yourself wiping sweat from your brow, swatting imaginary mosquitoes, and reaching for a cold glass of wine. Lucrecia Martel’s film immerses us in the sounds and feelings of a humid Argentinian summer: the roar of fans, the roar of distant thunder and the snores of sleeping, sweating adults fill the decrepit country house where Mecha (Graciela Borges) and his cousin Tali (Mercedes Morán) gather their families to escape the city.
There is no simple story arc in “La Ciénaga”; instead, the oppressive heat is the plot, and Martel studies the instincts it triggers in his petty and bourgeois characters. At the start of the film, a group of adults are drinking and nonchalantly lounging by the edge of a fetid pool, and when Mecha stumbles and falls on a tray of glasses, bleeding profusely, the others barely shake. The sun and the wine brought out the worst in their slowness and withdrawal, and their lethargy permeates the film like smog. Their children, meanwhile, are manic and restless, trying to beat the boredom of summer with adventures that often end in injury.
Then there’s native help, attendants hovering on the edge of the chaos, enduring crude insults and endless demands for ice and towels. Who has holidays and who works during their holidays? Who becomes idle and thanks to whose work? In “La Ciénaga,” even summer is an unevenly distributed resource, its unease laying bare deeper social ills.
— Devika Girish
