The Big Picture - Top Five Summertime Movies

Episode Date: July 17, 2020

Summer movie season has effectively been canceled, but we're still thinking about what summer means to the movies. Chris Ryan joins Sean and Amanda to talk about what makes a summer flick, and then they share their top fives. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Oh, I have today's forecast for you. Hot! I'm Sean F forecast for you. Hot! I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about summer movie season. Or at least the summer movie season in our mind's eye, because the summer movie season has essentially been canceled. Earlier this week, it became clear that Tenet would not be opening on August 12th, although Warner Brothers has not yet made that official. Though the whole country seems to agree that we shouldn't be going into movie theaters anytime soon.

Yesterday, the Telluride Film Festival was canceled, and that probably isn't the last of them. And so summer movies for us this year will have to be summer movies of our own design. And so we've gathered the big three on today's episode of The Big Picture. Chris Ryan makes his triumphant return to talk sunscreen, tasty waves, and that endless glow. What's up, CR? I just drenched myself in Hawaiian tropic for this. I hope you know. I smell like a coconut and big pharma. Let's go. Amanda, you're a summer gal. You like the sun. You like to swim. You like to be outside. We don't share that. Talk to me about your summer movie experience so far this year. Yeah, I was reflecting that summer is the only time that I'm truly happy. And a lot of it has to do with the warmth and the swimming and the activities. And

you and I are both children of the summer. So I do feel that the stars and the sun aligned in some way for me. But for me, summer and also summer movies, in addition to getting to swim a lot, are just about no rules, no parents. Normal business is suspended and anything can happen. And I find that pretty exciting. And that was kind of the animating thing that, um, that inspired my list, which do all happen within the context of summer itself. I believe like the time and the setting is really important, but there is also a mood to like a quote summer movie. And I guess what I'm saying here is I did the emphasis on summer as a season, as opposed to like the type of movies that often get released in the summer when you go to the, to, to the, to the movie

theater, which we are no longer doing. Yeah. Let's make that distinction. This is not a podcast about the best summer blockbusters ever released. There's an ongoing series on the ringer right now about that very idea. There have been some wonderful movies released around our birthdays. Amanda. We've talked about on this show, we love to go to the movies for our birthday. The summer is a great time for movies. What we're talking about is capturing the feeling, the essence, the truth of summer in a movie. And that is a slightly different proposition. Chris, are you a summer movies guy? I love summer movies. I found myself really having a hard time narrowing it down to five

and trying to balance, as I always do with these lists, whether it's a Hall of Fame or a top five, being true to myself, but also not wanting to get too cute. This is one of those topics though, Sean, that I think you could very reasonably pick the Mount Rushmore of summer movies and feel completely like

personally represented in them like a lot of the times when it's like what are your five favorite films and if somebody was like Citizen Kane Godfather 2 and then but then you'd be like you're not a real person but in this you and the three of us were talking and we were like should we just take a couple of movies out and be like, obviously it's these three or obviously it's these four. But like now let's be personally interesting. And Sean said no, because he still believes in rules even in the summer.

So we had to follow Sean's rules. Well, no, I think that, you know, we'll have a conversation. We'll share our top fives. This is something that's going to go on the internet.

So you know what that means. As soon as people see it or hear it, they're going to be like, you guys forgot about this, you fucking morons. So invariably, there's no way to kind of capture what we might deem to be the consensus. There are a couple of movies that we'll talk about that are broadly thought to be consensus summer movies.

But I don't know, the fun of this exercise is getting to talk about the small and the big and so yeah and like you said like we've there's a few of these i think there are a few summer films that we've talked about on this podcast that we've talked about on rewatchables very extensively so i did try to like give myself the the homework you know no homework during summer but i tried to give myself the homework assignment of trying to find like a couple of more obscure picks here. Not really, but slightly more obscure. Amanda, you mentioned that setting and time of year are very important to this.

Is there also a vibe to these movies? On your list, what captures the essence of summer? Definitely no parents, all nostalgia I found, or a lot of them are people either reflecting on the summers of their childhood, or they are summers about childhood. There's a lot of coming of age, like, you know, which makes sense because summer in its purest form where you don't have to go to school and you don't have any homework and you've like are finally a little bit in control of your time and can look at the world around you is really only experienced by children

and people who are in school. And I miss it every year. I really miss it every day. It's not limited to summer that I don't long for summer vacation. So that is a theme. But I think also what I was saying earlier just about kind of like normal business is suspended.

And so people are in situations that they aren't usually in. And people are out and people are interacting more. And then sometimes really great things happen. And sometimes like real tragedies happen. They are like major events happen in the summer, in my experience. Not limited to, but including my birth. Chris, what about for you? Is there like a? Is there a

skeleton key to the story of a summer movie? I think it's suspended animation. And now that can take place, that can be condensed into a day or a night. I love all-in-one-day summer movies. I love all-in-one-night summer movies, obviously. We'll probably talk about a couple of those, but it's also for the characters themselves in the film. I always feel like they are in a state of in-between, whether it's in between a school year, maybe they're having some sort of personal crisis, or maybe the community that surrounds them is in some sort of state of transition. But this moment is right before the collapse or the rise. There's always this kind of breathtaking in summer where nothing really changes that much,

but everything changes. And I think that's what I like so much about these movies, even if some of them aren't necessarily like, man, it is a scorcher out. Before we share our lists, I just, I wanted to check in with you, Chris, about how you're feeling about the world of movies. On the watch, you and Andy are frequently, not always, but frequently talking TV.

You're a big, you're a big Chris Nolan stan. I am. You've got a big space in your heart for it. You know, it's the 10 year anniversary of Inception recently, and people have been celebrating it. Not me, but people have been. You didn't get a chance to appear on that rewatchables and that was maybe an error on our part. How are you feeling about no Tenet? How are you feeling about no Summer of Nolan? How are you feeling about no Summer really of new movies in the way that we were hoping? Well, thanks, Sean. I am the proprietor of the Ana de Armas Stan spinoff Twitter account. Chris Nolan sipping tea.

Okay. I think like three people got that, but I was one of them. Chris, we love having you on the big picture. You know, I'm going to throw this back to you guys. Why hasn't he just been like, see you next summer? Does he have some other urgent business happening? Is he already have another movie that he wants to get going?

Like, what's the problem? Why not just kick it to next summer? If it's important, it's a summer movie. Or does he think this film can single-handedly

save the theatrical experience if it comes out? I mean, he's a smart guy. We've seen, he knows what the kind of consequences and the dangers of putting a movie out right now

and having people be like, man, I don't know. On one hand, it's super dangerous to be indoors with lots of people. On the other hand, Tenet, you know, like I don't understand why this movie does not take place like now. We can wait a year. It's not like it's going to lose its sort of timeliness.

So I'm kind of confused by why this has become a debate at all. I think it's just big savior energy. I think that he's very eager to be the person. And frankly, he's earned the right. I mean, he is maybe the signature filmmaker of the last 10 years. And so maybe, I mean, in some ways, I admire the gall. I admire the balls to just say, like, it is up to Tenant to save the gall. I admire the balls to just say like, it is up to Tenant to save this experience. What do you think, Amanda? I mean, is it really Christopher Nolan sitting in a room being like, I will decide 100%

whether movie theaters reopen and the public health and safety of like, there are too many corporations involved for me to think that it rests in Christopher Nolan's hands alone to be like, let's push it next year. And I think that, you know, we've seen like the national theaters lobby is just is desperate and is suing people and doing everything they possibly can in order to get these theaters

open and definitely exerting pressure on studios. And I'm sure that there have been a lot of conversations with Warner Brothers behind the scenes. I'm sure Warner Brothers is weighing how much money it loses pushing it a year versus releasing it. And, you know, there's like, again, there's just so much uncertainty that I do. I think because Tenet has become a political football, I wonder whether it's like 100 percent Christopher Nolan's decision at this point. Also, I do really think at this point, Tenet's appeal is so tied to, you can go back to movie theaters and you can see Tenet. It is now, for better and worse, that's become its marketing identity and the identity of the movie. And so if they give that

up, I think it's like an admission of failure. And I suppose they think that that will have effect on the box office a year from now. That's just my guess. To your larger question, Sean, I think I just realized how much of my summer I spent at movie theaters, which I think I always kind of knew intellectually, but didn't know emotionally about the amount of nights I would kill or hot days I would kill going to Arklay, going to the Vista, going to New Beverly, going to any number of the great theaters here in Los Angeles. And another thing that I miss is when you're watching stuff largely on streaming services, there is a real curatorial vibe. You're always finding your own algorithm and saying, well, this is exactly what I want to watch. And you can Google,

I want to watch a horror movie with a very long setup, preferably on a road trip, possibly at camp, you know, and you will get a list of 11 movies that do that. Those are your favorite kinds of movies, Chris. But I like how submissive movie theaters can be where you're like, I just want to get out of the house. What is the thing that's got like an above 50% Metacritic rating that I can go see for two hours? And I kind of miss that like experience as much as I miss the popcorn and goobers combination. Chris, that is like a very particular you phenomenon though. And it's something I really admire. Popcorn and goobers or being submissive? No. All of the above. You know, you and I do share a lot of food interests.

But no, you'll just be like, sure, I'll go see this movie. I don't know a lot about it. Like, I have two hours. I'll wander in. And I don't really take as many risks in that way, possibly, because we just have to watch so many damn movies for this podcast. Because Sean watches them all at like two in the morning.

And I'm like, I got to catch up. That's like my summer experience. No, but I, you know, I do wonder whether as many people are doing what you do in a theater, Chris, or whether actually at home now streaming, people are like, oh, I guess I'll just click on this for a while. And whether streaming has like enhanced. Now, then you're watching in a different way at home, which we've also discussed. But I think more people could stand to have like the Chris Ryan movie viewing.

I'll just try it. And that maybe streaming in a lot of ways makes it easier. Yeah. Just to circle the square on this whole thing. After seeing the news over the last couple of weeks and then specifically the sort of stock market analysis conversation around whether or not movie theater should be opening um it struck me that i think a lot more movies are going to come now to pvod uh tenant may not tenant may actually we may actually learn chris soon maybe even before this podcast is posted the tenant is

moving to 2021 because preserving that experience is really important. And Amanda, to your point, I think it's not Nolan's sole discretion that is allowing the movie to go when he wants it to go. But Warner brothers in particular, I think is an important part of this because it's a studio that prides itself on having long-term relationships with filmmakers. You know, this is the studio of Clint Eastwood. This is the studio of Stanley Kubrick.

And so because of that, they have this, this fealty, this kind of interconnected relationship where they don't move unless everybody's on board at the same time. And if Nolan is pushing back, then he keeps getting to push things every two weeks. But we'll see where things go. Instead, let's focus on the summer that we've designed for ourselves. So let's talk top fives now. Chris, do you want to start us off with your number five

summer movie, summertime movie? Yeah, sure. My number five is Rear Window. Now, it's important, obviously, to distinguish that Rear Window might be one of the 30 best movies ever made. So to say it's the fifth best summer movie, but this is a personal list. Obviously, it's Alfred Hitchcock's portrayal of claustrophobia and voyeurism starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, who never seems to be affected by humidity in this movie. But James Stewart is. James Stewart is trapped in a wheelchair with broken legs throughout a heat wave and is sort

of forced to entertain himself by looking out the window and using his... He's a photojournalist and using his telephoto lenses to kind of spy on his neighbors and take in their behavior. And I included this, not only is it just still an absolute flawless masterpiece of movie making, but I don't know about you guys, and I'm not trying to be a creep. I've certainly noticed a lot more about my neighbors over the last couple of months. You can't help it. And it's just like, oh, that guy sighs a lot. You know, like, you know, like I can, you hear things, you see things, you wonder things, you know, you notice incidents that maybe you wouldn't have seen if you hadn't been home all day long and all night long. And the heat has definitely made it a little bit more,

I don't know, I guess like the tension has been rising a little bit, you know what I mean? And I think that everybody's kind of been inside here for the last couple of months, like really cooped up. And now that it's, heat waves have been hitting Los Angeles and I didn't know across the States,

I think that there's just like that feeling of like you're peering out your window and you kind of want to know what's going on, but you don't want to know what's going on. I just think that this movie captures that summer claustrophobia in an amazing way. Chris, would you say that, because you've already talked about submissiveness

as a core text for you, would you also say that voyeurism already talked about submissiveness as a as a core text for you would you also say that voyeurism is is important to you no actually i i mean like i my wife says i'm nosy i think i'm helpful you know like i i we we're gonna take that part of the conversation but continue i think that like i I can be like gossipy, but I also am always just like, I'm just like curious, you know? And I'm also like,

if there's like a fight down the street, some people might be like fucking the double lock the doors. I'm just like, half of me is like, I should go break this up. And half of me is like, wonder what happened. I wonder what started.

I wonder why this guys are so mad at each other. I wonder if this guy's going to like, and so I think I definitely like feel that when I watch rear window how is there not a rear window to live from your home like I just let's do it okay because it's just the guy across the street building his new stairs you know what I mean like it's it's not there's nothing that exciting happening here I know yeah he's building stairs to bury someone underneath them. Yeah, where'd that cat go? Amanda, what's your number five?

What a segue from Rear Window, one of the greatest films of all time, to one of, I would say, one of the greatest summer movies of all time. This is a choice that goes out to all the young men and women who know what the words Devon saw mean yes yes so uh my pick is now and then what did you say i said girls can't play softball what you doing rober, remember you're a lady.

Why don't you go home and play with your dolls? The only doll Roberta's got is a GI Joe. What are you doing? Bye! Which is a 1995 movie that is essentially Stand By Me, but for girls. And I saw this at a formative time. And I think it lives in my head. I think the way a lot of Stand By Me maybe lives in people's heads that are slightly older than me.

The setup is there are four older women. They're adults. They are played by Demi Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, Rita Wilson, and Melanie Griffith, which is just like some peak 90s for you. And, you know, they made one of those packs. And so they've reconvened primarily because they're really famous movie stars and they have to get this movie made. And then they reminisce about the summer of 1970, where they all grew up together in this little suburb in Indiana. And the young versions of these characters are played by Gabby Hoffman, Christina Ricci,

Ashley Aston Moore, and Thora Birch. And they ride bikes. They get into fights with the boys in the neighborhood. They learn things about their parents. They learn a ton about sex, not a ton actually, but they learn like the right amount for like 10 year olds who don't understand sex,

which is like definitely what Amanda was that the speech about the garden and watering the garden and the character learning what sex is, has just like really stayed with me for a very long time. You know, and, and, and they fall in love and they learn things about themselves. And I have just seen this movie a lot. I don't know why. I think I learned a lot about the music of the 60s and 70s from this soundtrack. And I realized when we were watching that like Gabby Hoffman will always be the age

she was in now and then to me personally. That's just like that Gabby Hoffman will always be the age she was in now and then to me personally. That's just who Gabby Hoffman is. But yeah, it's about young girls making friends and growing up. It's a classic coming of age. Why did Leslie Linka Glatter, who made this movie, not make any other movies? She made a couple of TV movies. She worked in a lot of television, but she never made she did like all of homeland like she did all of homeland she segued to to tv pretty heavy which you know that that works out yeah i'm sure i'm sure it was

very lucrative it's just weird because this is a movie that when i was talking to my wife about this last night and she said she brought this movie up too she was just like this is a great summer movie and obviously she you guys are around the same age. You're both, you were both young women when it came out, but still like I watched it all the time. This was an HBO classic as well in the nineties. It was very touchable on a regular basis. Yeah. And like the, the vision of, you know, they're all wearing those denim shorts that are just like just above the knee and Keds and they're all on their bikes. Like, like this summer iconography, it's, youography, it's a very specific American suburb summer iconography, but definitely just like looks

like what I understand summer to be. Chris, as a teen boy, were you more in love with Gabby Hoffman, Thora Birch or Christina Ricci? I was definitely a Ricci guy. I knew you were going to say that. So was Devin Sawa, so it's okay. I don't know about any damn party waxing.

Come on, Barlow. Summer's almost over. Let's get radical. Aw, come on, Jack. You're just getting old. He was born old. My number five is a movie called Big Wednesday. This is my pointy-headed movie nerd pick. I hope you guys will forgive that. It's a 1978 drama directed by John Milius, also co-written by John Milius. John Milius is sort of the forgotten bro in the movie Bratz generation of film directors, which of course includes

Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Paul Schrader, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, this legendary cadre of guys who were living in California and New York who became friends, who were obsessed over movies. Milius was sort of the older brother figure in that group of people. And he was primarily known as a screenwriter in the early 70s. I think he also graduated from USC, like a handful of those guys. And he was a real man's man, a real macho kind of guy. He was fascinated by historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt. He was fascinated by war pictures. He was fascinated by the masculine impulse, which means that some of his movies are a bit much to absorb in the year 2020. Big Wednesday is probably the most sensitive movie he ever made. Really beautiful, fascinating tribute to surfing culture.

And it's not necessarily the kind of endless summer style surfing movie that you might expect. It's not really a sports movie. It's not a competition movie, ultimately. It's a movie about friendship. It's not unlike Now and Then. It's about three guys who are bonded over, you know, living in Malibu, riding waves, discovering who they are, finding out whether or not they're there for each other when things get very difficult.

And the movie stars three really interesting people with three really interesting phases of their life. It stars Jan Michael Vincent, who I think is kind of becoming lost to time now, who is really just a wonderful actor in the 70s and 80s who had a lot of personal struggles. And his character has a lot of personal struggles and kind of mirrors some of the things that J. Michael Benson went through. And then William Catt and Gary Busey, a very young, very handsome Gary Busey, which is a little bit unnerving to see before he went full crazy-eyed character actor in a lot of action movies that Chris loves. And it's just that it's a very beautiful, delicate, kind of slow-moving, elegant movie. It's like watching the ocean, this movie. It's like, it's like watching the

ocean, this movie. It's, it's just so incredibly rendered. And it feels like in conversation with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and American Graffiti and all of the movies that were, that those guys were making at that time, this was their most sentimental period, I think. And it's just a, it's a, it's, it's a portrait of, I wish Milius made more movies like this because he clearly has such an affinity and it clearly brings him peace as opposed to, say, Red Dawn, which he made six or seven years later, or Conan the Barbarian.

These are the movies that Milius went on to make in the 1980s as movie business got more steroidal. But this is just a beautiful film. And so if you haven't seen Big Wednesday, I would encourage you to check it out. Can I ask a follow-up question? Of course. Are all surfing movies summer movies?

Hmm. Well, is every Hawaii movie a summer movie? That's a great question. Yeah. So this is interesting. I'm so glad we're talking about this because there's a literal definition to summer is like a, there, there's a, apparently a scientific definition for it. And there is like the season of summer in a time. And then there are like things that you do in summer and summer moods. And I think that I'm

open to like things that you do in summer and summer moods. And, you know, I I'm I'm not a surfer because I'm afraid of waves but I have like um a real longing I I I love surfing content because it seems like those guys to an extent are like it is the endless summer they're always chasing that mood so I would say yes for endless for summer but but that is because of the vibe I don't think that you just give a pass to anything that has summer-related content. It's interesting. I, in some ways, feel like surfers, they can't say shit about summer because their life is summer. Summer is a reward. You know what I mean? Summer is a break. And for surfers, that's like, when I watch Point Break, I don't think of it as a summer movie. Although I saw it on a lot of lists on the internet of like best movies set in summer.

I was like, is that, it didn't even occur to me that Point Break was set in the summer, you know? Well, I was just going to say about the list of movies set in summer because I, you know, also Google them. And there was another movie that was on every single list. It was like, this is the ultimate summer movie. You know what movie that was? It's Greece. And let me tell you something. Greece is not a summer movie. Like Greece is the antithesis of the summer movie. And I understand that it starts with Summer Lovin', but do you know what day Summer Lovin' is sung? It's on the first day of school. And then the whole movie goes to the last day of school. And Grease is about not summer and the consequences of summer and longing for summer. And so it's not a summer movie.

But at least in my definition, I got very angry about that. But so I feel like, I don't know, I feel like if you're experiencing summer every day, then you've just like ascended to a higher plane. Like I think you can have summer all the time if you want to, or at least that's what I would like to believe because that's the only thing I'm living for. But maybe that's different person to person. Yeah. I think that location complicates a lot of these questions.

You know, if you live in Hawaii or in California or in the Caribbean or in Brazil, it's just warm there all the time. And so, you know, we're East coasters, you know, you're from down South, Amanda, but still like it got cold in Georgia. So you couldn't go surfing on, uh, on, on December 19th, you know? So I think you also can't go surfing on December 19th in California. I mean, you can, but you have to wear a wetsuit. One of the great disappointments of California is that it's not summer all year long. Just FYI. Well, if you go further south, it might be.

That's the thing. We're just, we're into the top of Southern California. Nevertheless, I think, Chris, generally speaking, yes. I think surfing movies are, by definition, summer movies. Yeah. Okay. There are no other surfing movies on this list though, right? I don't think so.

No. I'm still waiting on the Barbarian Days adaptation of William Finnegan's nonfiction book. I would watch that Netflix 10 episode series. However many seasons they want to do that, I would do. I would love that. Chris, what's your number four? Bull Durham.

Top of the ninth. Two outs. One out away from a stunning two-hit shutout for Lelouch. For the first 21 years of my life, I think baseball was the organizing principle of my summer. Whether it was being a fan of it, playing it, playing in multiple teams throughout the summer, through the end of my school year,

and then in neighborhood teams, and on traveling teams in Philly. He's looking for heat. Let me give him the deuce. Oh no, he's shaking off the studs. Big mistake. This son of a bitch is throwing a two-hit shutout. He's shaking me off.

Do you believe that shit? Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well. And then as I got a little bit older, and especially when I moved to Boston, I worked at a record store that was right, not like next to, but close to Fenway. And Red Sox traffic, both foot traffic and car traffic was like

literally defined my life for the entirety of the Red Sox season because your entire life was based on we'll be busy because of a Red Sox game or you won't be able to get home because of a Red Sox game or we might as well get another beer because of this Red Sox game. I him I was going to throw a deuce, right? Yep. Man, that ball got out of here in a hurry. You know, anything travels that far, I'd have a damn stewardess on it, don't you think? And in some ways, like, I remember baseball teams that I've loved over the years, players, and moments in baseball games

as, like, the indelible moments of my summers. I think there are a lot of great baseball movies. I don't think any baseball movie captures the way a baseball season is intertwined with summer, the way bull Durham does. And I don't think any, I wouldn't, I don't want to go as far as a movie,

but I think this, that Susan Sarandon, Kevin Costner's romance is the ultimate summer romance to me. Like the way it gets, like, you know, it goes from spring to fall and it's like really, uh,

natural kind of like languid way. It gets really hot in the, in the late summer. And then it kind of like falls apart a little bit in the fall. And, uh, yeah, the way in which those things kind of work together in this movie.

And it's, I think it's one of like the great, I don't know if you would call it a romantic comedy, but it's definitely one of the great romantic movies as well as the great baseball movie. And I think North Carolina summer is just like... It really just radiates off the sidewalk. Chris, I just want to talk about Chris Ryan, baseball player.

Yeah, sure. Can you just give us the back of your baseball card? Were you more of like a rangy Kevin Elster, light hitting shortstop? You would think your boy was a game manager from behind the plate. I was, I was something of a pitcher whisperer. Catcher really like just kind of like kept guys in their head, kept them playing their game. In my early days, I was a pretty ferocious line drive.

And in those days, a line drive could often mean a home run. So I was like a power guy. And then when I turned 15, and really when I turned 14, a couple of guys in and around my league discovered off-speed pitches and discovered curveballs. And I did not. I did not understand how the ball was coming at my head and that it wasn't there anymore. And that pretty much ended my baseball career as a player,

as did a pretty brutal thumb injury and discovering that girls existed. So those things all combined maybe robbed us of a really important MLB career. We can't really say. But yeah, I left it all behind me for a life of letters. Yeah. I mean, podcasting is grateful for your extended trip to the DL.

Nice job. You're welcome, guys. Yeah. Amanda, what's your number four? I'm sorry. I mean, I've heard the catcher stuff like a thousand times, and it still, every time, just really cracks me up. My number four has nothing to do with baseball.

My number four is a European choice, sort of. I mean, it's definitely set in Italy. It's Call Me By Your Name. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster that we go bankrupt by the age of 30 and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to make yourself feel nothing so as not to feel anything,

what a waste which is a very beautiful summer love story and summer love stories go two ways and I without spoilers my list has representations of both of them

but this is the one where it's beautiful for what it is and people learn things about themselves and then you're kind of heartbroken at the end but in a nice way in a in a in a art isn't love beautiful and and isn't the world full of possibilities type of way um this is obviously the 2017 adaptation by luca guadagninoino starring Timothy Chalamet and army hammer. And it is in addition to being like the very classic coming of age love story. It's also just like very sensual in all of its like life pleasures. It's set in Italy and I, um, I, I don't, uh, get to spend my summers in Italy, which, you know, it's just one of the many sad circumstances of being Amanda Dobbins.

But it sure seems like they have it figured out over there. But, you know, from the images of the chocolate mousse cups at the dinner table and the kind of lazy afternoons by the pool and the swimming and the long bike rides, I was trying to pick a clip for Bobby to use in this podcast. And it was pointless because like there's no speaking in a majority of these scenes. It's just like long camera pans of like this, you know, hazy, beautiful Italian countryside. And you can feel the breeze. And then like Armie Hammer is dancing, know without speaking for five minutes uh so it like it it evokes the experience of a lazy

summer and that longing and the you know the the physical pleasures of many kinds that uh summer provides and really loved it shout out Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet. How's Call Me By Your Name on rewatch? I don't think I've seen it since I saw it at peak peach. What's it feel like to revisit it? I found that it has, you can break it up into scenes, I mean, which is true of everything, right? And so you're like, oh, you know, this is the nice one where they like just swim around in a pool for a while. It's definitely slow, which is part of the summerness of it. Like, you know, I remember when you're 15 or 16 or 17 and you suddenly have all this time and, you know, hopefully you have a summer job or something to do. But like you spend a lot of time being like, I don't have anything to do and I don't know where to go and I have all this time to fill and you can like you can

actually feel that time in the movie which is why I think it's a good summer movie I I have I don't think I've watched it in full since I re-watched it which is maybe the other answer to your question yeah it's that's it's a good pick though I mean again I already mentioned my wife but this would also definitely be on her list and I've talked in the past about her her kitchen movies the movies that she likes to put on but not necessarily pay close attention to while she's in the kitchen and this is definitely on the list because it's it's pure vibe like it's emotionally pulverizing and very literary but it's also just the energy the music the way that it sounds if you just turn and glance over your shoulder and

look at what's on the screen you know it's just there's an energy in the movie. So it's a great pick. My number four is a little different, but also about coming of age. It's called Risky Business. So your folks are going out of town. Tomorrow. You got the place all to yourself? Yeah. What the fuck? This is a 1983 film that has a huge cultural reputation, but I think maybe isn't as understood now the way that it was when it was released. So this is an iconic Tom Cruise performance in this movie which is written and directed by paul brickman a guy who really did not go on to do very much more in hollywood after this movie this is

kind of his lone masterpiece and it's essentially a satire of wealth and privilege and opportunity in ronald reagan's america and it's probably best known for being the movie in which tom cruise dances to bob seeger in his underwear it's a summer movie because it's about a guy essentially whiling away a summer in an empty house in the months before he's meant to go to college. And what happens? He encounters a prostitute, thanks to his friend, who's portrayed by Rebecca De Mornay. And then over time, his parents' home becomes a brothel. And that sounds like an outrageous, absurd teen

comedy from the 1980s, something closer to Porky's or Hot Dog the Movie. But this is like an oddly subtle, beautiful, fascinating character study of people trying to figure out what they want to do with their life and whether or not they're taking advantage of the opportunities that they have. I would argue that even though it's almost 40 years old, it's still incredibly on point about a lot of the things even that we're talking about today in terms of who gets to do what and why, who gets to have good opportunities and who doesn't. And it also just features Cruise like at the apex of his young charm. I mean, he is really so in the pocket of the Joel Goodson character

and so perfectly cast and so winning. But also there's this slight kind of like smarmy menace that he has that I think is a little bit unnoted about Cruise at times. And it's just a fascinating movie to return to. I watched it again last night and I really, much like Big Wednesday,

it's surprisingly beautiful and artful and almost poetic at times, which I don't think is necessarily what people think about with Risky Business. I'm actually surprised we haven't done this on the rewatchables, Chris. This feels like it's in that zone that we've been hitting of late. Yeah, I think it's definitely a movie where one scene has overshadowed the entire movie now, where people just think of the sunglasses and the slide across the floor and don't remember that it's about sex work and so i it's funny i i don't feel like this movie has gotten like the revival that some others have but it you're right sean it actually feels more like like a nicholas wending Refn movie at times than it does like One Crazy Summer or The Sure Thing

or like a teen sex comedy. Chris, what's your number three? My number three is Die Hard with a Vengeance. Dial 911. Tell the police to get up here quick. Somebody's about to get killed. And get your butts to school, you hear me? All right.

It is the third film in the Die Hard series. It is set in New York City, the home of Detective John McClane, the cop in the first, obviously, the cop who stars in most of the Die Hard movies, all the Die Hard movies. He starts in L.A. There's a Washington, D.C. airport one in the second. There's a Washington DC airport one in the second diet or the vengeance of the second best movie in this series. And it's,

it's, it's in, in shouting distance of diehard, which is one of the greatest action movies ever made. Uh, it is one of the great all in one day movies. It is one of the great New York city movies. And it is literally like the best hangover movie ever.

Anyone who has ever been hung over in new york in summer and watches die hard and is just like oh my god i need i need some aspirin and a bacon egg and cheese and a coffee but i also need to throw up and why am i wearing this shirt like it is perfect and it's just an incredible game movie basically Basically, the entire movie, the premise is that this guy Simon, played by Jeremy Irons, who is related to Hans Gruber from the first film, Alan Rickman's character,

is playing a game with John McClane and making him do all these tasks throughout New York City. So it turns New York and the impossibility of navigating in New York into a game board. And he is assisted throughout this with, uh, by,

by this guy named Zeus played by Samuel L. Jackson. And one of my favorite Samuel L. Jackson performances. And yeah, it's just like, it's just one of those movies where it's like, um,

you kind of see New York in that moment where it's like, there's a lot of people have left the city, but it's still an active, uh, like cluster around. And yeah, it's just not perfect when it comes to it being a New York summer movie. There was a bunch of these kinds of crime in New York in the summer movies that I could have chosen. Dog Day is set in the summer. There's a bunch of them, but Dire with a Vengeance is so rewatchable and it's like a summer tradition for me. Love this movie. There's also that great story that this was a film that was originally called Simon Says and was not a John McClane story and had to be

refashioned into the Die Hard franchise. And usually when something like that happens, it really hurts the film. But in this case, I feel like it elevates it. You know, it's, and I completely agree with you about Sam Jackson. This is, I think this is the first part he booked after Pulp Fiction and he is on fire in this movie. And one of the reasons why Die Hard 2 doesn't work as well for me is because Bruce Willis doesn't really have anybody to counterpunch with. And Sam Jackson is just on his hip the whole time and they fucking hate each other. And it's great. It's just fantastic.

It's a really, really good movie. Also opens with the Love and Spoonful's Summer in the City. Yes, which I almost was going to disqualify it for. I feel like any summer movie that uses Summer in the City is kind of cheating, but I'll allow it here.

Well, it has that like bang on intro where it uses that song and you hear like 10 seconds of it and you think it's going to be this kind of cliche New York in the summer movie. And then a massive explosion happens and it completely sets us off. And it's just so brilliant. Okay, Amanda, what's your number three? My number three takes place east of New York City in what I think has to be the number one beach house of movies, but possibly of all time. I mean, I can't say that I've seen all the beach houses.

I would love to. If you've got a beach house and you have, you know, once COVID is all squared away, I'd love to come tour it to be able to make a definitive proclamation. But for now, it's the beach House and Something's Gotta Give, directed by Nancy Meyers, who is very important to me and to many people, I think, interested in houses, if not in summer. And adult love. And adult love. That's really important. So, yeah, I was going to talk about this.

Now, I know I talked a big game about Grease not being set in the summer summer and I rewatched a lot of something's got to give. And I think, you know, it's definitely in the, at the beach and they make a joke about how Diane Keaton's character wears turtlenecks even when it's warm. So I do think like it's a, it's a summer mood and a summer setting, but I, I'm not a hundred percent certain that it's happening between the months of June and,

and September. And quite frankly, it's set in the Hamptons and the Hamptons seems like a little empty for it to be prime summer season. So I want everyone to know I'm conscious of the rules, but Something's Gotta Give is a summer movie to me in that it is about people finding love

in circumstances that they wouldn't normally. It's obviously, if you haven't seen it, it stars Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson and Keanu Reeves. And Jack Nicholson is like a toxic bachelor type, standard for him, who winds up in Diane Keaton's beach home because he was dating her daughter, played by Amanda Peet, my wife, Amanda Peet.

And Amanda Peet leaves because she has to go do her Sotheby's auction or whatever. And maybe it's Christie's. Not really sure. One of the two major auction houses. You know, they don't really specify. She's very nervous about it. And so, oh, and Jack Nicholson also has a heart attack while they almost have sex. But they don't have sex.

Crucial plot point. So then Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson also has a heart attack while they almost have sex, but they don't have sex. Crucial plot point. So then Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson are in this beach house together for an extended period of time. And they're both like, Diane Keaton's a playwright and she's still working. And I believe Jack Nicholson is still working, but they've reached a point in their careers where it's not the daily grind. And it has that kind of like, we're sort of on vacation and we're here in unusual circumstances together. And we're like learning things about ourselves because we have a little more time than we normally would. And we're in a setting that we aren't normally in, which is in this case, the beach house. And then, you know, life lessons and love ensue.

And I think it is also really nice because as Chris pointed out, it's older people falling in love and older people enjoying summer. And most of my summer movies are about kids discover and learning things and experiencing summer. But I just really need to believe that summer is possible for old people too. So thank you, Nancy Meyers. And something's got to give. Amanda, you are definitively not in your late 50s or early 60s. So this is a fascinating corner to stake out.

I just have something to look forward to. I'm in the middle. Well, you got tenets coming out. It's a beautiful beach day and I'm here on Zoom with you guys. So, you know, I just need to know that at some point I might have access to a beach house and Keanu Reeves asking me out on a date, which by the way, for the record, I agree with all the people on the internet who thinks that she should pick Keanu Reeves. It's insane. She should have picked Keanu Reeves, but that's okay. He's doing okay.

Spoken like a true millennial, not understanding Jack's appeal. I do, but I also understand keanu reeves's appeal yeah this is i think this is nancy myers's best looking movie and it's probably not a mistake that it's shot by michael ballhouse who shot goodfellas and make it about shots dog that's what's up that's what we do here that's what we do he also shot working girl if that makes amanda feel any better about this conversation yes he shot

motherfucking Goodfellas yeah he shot Broadcast News that's like one of the guys that's one of my guys so it's great it's a good meeting of our interests

it's a great pick yeah okay I should do my number three my number three is perhaps not as sophisticated as some of the picks that have come before

but it's a movie that I love it's called Summer that I love. It's called Summer School. Francis Grimm. Oh, don't recall me that. The name is Chainsaw. That was in Black and Decker?

That was in Texas Massacre. Oh. Yeah, that's in here. What's in there? They got files. Pam House. This is a comedy that is directed by the great, late Carl Reiner, and it is a movie, speaking of movies, that were on all the damn time in my house growing up. This movie was on pay cable every day of every summer of the ages of like 6 to 13 for me.

It's a, you know, it's probably not like a super well-remembered 1987 comedy starring Mark Harmon. We've talked about Market Correction before. Mark Harmon has gone on to a very lucrative career as the star of some CBS series, whose name I'm not familiar with, but he was- NCIS. NCIS, thank you, Chris.

I know you're a big fan of that show. He was really in conversation with Gutenberg, with Keaton, with Hanks, with the lords of the 1980s. You know, he really had a chance to get in there and he missed his shot. This is one of the rare kind of starring roles that he had. This is a very goofy and very fun movie

that I think is fairly accurate to a certain kind of screwball high school experience. It's obviously set in a summer school. A teacher, Mr. Shoop, that Harmon plays is beset by all of these um i don't know fail kids really a bunch of bunch of children that he has to teach island toys yeah yeah um and an incredible cast courtney thorne smith is in this movie uh shawnee smith who you'll remember from a lot of 80s movies um dean cameron is iconic in this film as a character named chainsaw

there's two guys chainsaw and his pal, Dave, are obsessed with horror movies. And they're obsessed with the practical effects that you would find in 1980s horror movies, like the Friday the 13th movies or The Thing. And so there's a recurring theme throughout the movie of these guys constantly playing pranks that feature practical horror effects on all of their classmates. It's like an absurd comedy, but this is also from the guy who made The Jerk and who was a significant part of the Dick Van Dyke Show, who understands kind of the rhythms and shape of really good, familiar, flowing comedy. And also rewatched some of this movie last night. It was just immediately

teleported back to my adolescence, which was not always a great place to be but sometimes it was great it was good it was good when summer school was on um also features peak kirstie alley 1987 kirstie alley who is someone who has i think been lost to time a bit in the cultural conversation but she was you know right in right at the height of cheers right at the height of seemed like an intellectual love interest yeah she seemed like a lot she seemed like a black... Intellectual love interest. Great hang. She seemed like a lot of fun. Yeah. I would put summer school in a group of movies that is... I think different people might have them in different order, but there's this really

huge group of movies that are 80s summer comedies that were just on constantly if you had early cable, and that would be Great Outdoors, Meatballs, One Crazy Summer, National Lampoon's Vacation, obviously, would be a huge one. But yeah, these were just like...

Oh, Weekend at Bernie's, which I'd even thought possibly of putting on my list. But the first hour of Weekend at Bernie's is actually pretty funny and is a pretty funny and like is is like a pretty funny idea about like these two schmendricks trying to get out of New York and go to the Hamptons and then they get there and their boss is dead so yeah it was a it that was a big mood was these comedies yeah and then 20 years later we get Wet Hot American Summer which is essentially like the the peak parody of of these movies, the loving homage to all of these movies. So, you know, in the same way that I think Bull Durham is a stand in for all of the great baseball movies that remind us of summer, a league of their own or the Sandlot or anything like that.

This I think of summer school as the stand in for all the movies that you're describing, some of which are good, some of which are terrible. But all of which I think provide the same kind of warm and fuzzy feeling for me. The good news about number two is that we all agreed on number two. And it was fairly unanimous. I think we all probably wanted to claim ownership, so we agreed that we should share it. Amanda, what's number two? Number two is do the right thing, which should be number one. It is not only one of the great summer movies of all time, and it's just like one of the great movies. And I always feel, as Chris was alluding at the beginning of this podcast, I always feel a little silly when we do these genre exercises. And then you just put like a stone cold, like classic at number two or four. And I'm like, I'm going to have to argue that another movie is better than do the right thing in a minute. And I that it's not I definitely said die harder with a vengeance is better than

window so it's okay it's like it's yeah you know we're all doing our best with these made-up rules but um you know do the right thing for me is the example of what happens when you like everyone is outside and out in the world and interacting with people and that can have really dramatic and often tragic results and it to me is like the ultimate New York City summer movie that's what I think of. And I also think in terms of just like communicating the actual physical experience of heat and what that does to people and how people experience that. But actually watching it, you can feel both the temperature and kind of the emotions rising in response to the temperature. And that is certainly a part of summer and an essential part of summer movies. I just think of the sweat index on a lot of these movies. And this is certainly a part of summer and an essential part of summer movies.

I just think of the sweat index on a lot of these movies. And this is the most visceral, I think, of the summer movies, where you can tell that people are just hot. It is very hot on that day in Brooklyn. I was going to say that one of the people that we should congratulate on making us feel that way, aside from Spike Lee, who's obviously the auteur and one of the stars of this movie, is Ernest Dickerson, who's the director of photography, hashtag shots, hashtag love cameras. I recommended this movie a bunch of times on a bunch of podcasts, but if you haven't seen it,

there's a documentary about cinematography called Visions of Light. The first voice I think you hear in Visions of Light is Ernest Dickerson. He's talking about David Lean's Oliver Twist and how that was a very formative experience to see that. But later on in Visions of Light, Dickerson talks about how they made Brooklyn seem hot and how they used color, especially red, in terms of putting red paint on walls where Ozzie Davis's character is sitting outside and making it like, so that everything just kind of radiated. And there's a lot of really, really deep artistry

to this movie in terms of making you feel certain ways at certain times throughout the day. And I mean, we could talk endlessly about Do the Right Thing, but I just wanted to shout out that particular aspect of that. It's a beautiful movie. I think the thing is, we're not saying that our number ones are better than Do the Right Thing. I think as evocations of summertime movies, we're just

putting them in context of conversation. And you know what? Our top fives, they change every day. So if you and I, Amanda and Chris, we're going to record this podcast tomorrow. Maybe Meatballs would be number one for me. Who can tell? Yeah, but I know what your number one is. It's not as embarrassing to argue that your number one is over Do the Right Thing. And I don't think mine... Well, I don't know. Do the Right Thing is one of the greatest films of American cinema so you know I lists are weird total total masterpiece and we're not besmirching about making a part of this conversation we are celebrating it now Chris what is your number one that is definitely not as good as do the right thing my number one not as good as do the right thing not as good as dazed and

confused I don't you know like there's a, like, you could just make this argument against a bunch of different movies. This is a very personal pick for some reason. I really responded to this movie. It's Adventureland. I'm at NYU right now. Oh, really? Oh, that's cool. Maybe I'll run into you on the streets of NYC.

What are you studying? Journalism. Yeah, I want to be like a travel essayist, but I want to report on the real state of the world. You know, like Charles Dickens, for example, wrote what you might call travel books, but he visited prisons and mental asylums. That's cool.

Yeah, is it? Yeah. Okay. No, it is. But why do you have to go to grad school for that? It stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart and Ryan Reynolds and a huge, deep bench

of an ensemble. It is shot during the winter. So, I would say that you actually can tell that. There are obvious slate gray skies. It's shot outside Pittsburgh and in Pittsburgh. You can see that it is not summer. Summer is a state of mind in this movie. It's about a guy who comes back from graduating college,

thinks he's going to go to Europe for a few weeks with his friends. Turns out his dad loses his job or gets demoted at his job, so they can't afford to send him. So he has to get a summer gig. He is a romantic literature major, so does not have a lot of marketable skills and winds up getting a job at an amusement park called Adventureland that's run by Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig. And the movie is about the summer he spends working

at this park with people like Martin Starr and just kind of smoking pot, listening to Big Star and Husker Du, falling in love with Kristen Stewart, and is also a pretty universally felt feeling. And it also, I think, captures a lot of the melancholy of what can happen during summer. There's a lot of like staring out of the windows of cars and listening to music. And summer is great, but summer can also be kind of boring and and a little bit sad at times

and i i just love the way this movie captures that i would i would put it in the same category with dazed and confused as like an evocation of coming of age just like a different age and it has one of the best soundtracks in the history of movies if you ask me uh yes one of my favorite movies ever made i i grew up 10 minutes from the real adventure land which is in farmingdale long island not in, not in I think in Pennsylvania, as this movie suggests. Greg Mottola is from my hometown. This is also Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart right before the explosion. It's right before Zombieland and the social network for Eisenberg.

And it's right before the first Twilight movie for Kristen Stewart. And in a way it is almost like it is their adolescence it is their summer break it is before they go away to college and become mega stars and these very almost iconic film actors for the next 10 years um it's also I think before Ryan Reynolds goes fully meta self-aware Deadpool and is actually just like, I'm just going to play out like a hot guy who was like the mechanic at this amusement park. And he's fucking great in it. There's not like a false note really in this movie. Amanda, what's your number one? My number one is a little film called Dirty Dancing. Yo cuz, she doing this. She came with with me she's with me

I carried a watermelon I'm a love man that's what they call me I'm a love man I carried a watermelon it had to be said it had to be said it had to be

you know and as you guys were talking about Adventureland which is a movie I quite like, but it's also one of my husband's favorite movies. And I,

and I do, I bring that up just to say, you know, it is about the Jesse Eisenberg character. And I do think that there is like a kind of a young man trying to sort out his life and that many men and women relate to, but Dirty Dancing is about a young woman trying to, to learn things about her life and the,

and the world outside of her life and dealing with her family and, and dealing with the power of dance and Patrick Swayze. And, and to me, it is a total classic. I was reflecting about how we don't, I don't think we have any camp movies on our list between the three of us. In my case, that was intentional because I hated camp.

Some real only child stuff there. Don't tell me what to do. You know, summer is about me having time for myself, not me doing your arts and crafts and you're like, you know, canoeing or whatever. So I never liked camp, but I know that it's essential for a lot of people. And Dirty Dancing is like camp for families, right? It's set at a resort in the Catskills in the early 60s. And Baby, played by Jennifer Grey, goes with her family. And she's on the precipice of a lot of things and is kind of stuck there and then becomes

entangled, literally, with Patrick Swayze, who is the dance instructor there. And she gets swept up kind of in the world of the camp and working with a, she discovers like the staff cabin and the staff parties. And discovers like the, how the resort works and things about her dad, her sister, herself. And then she just also dances so much. And guys, Patrick Swayze in this movie is just like, is still, I find it hard to put words around it. And, you know, there is a real learning about sex theme to all of my picks. And just watching Patrick Swayze dance in this movie is like possibly how I learned about sex. I'm not really sure.

I just like it's astonishing. And it's definitely how Baby learns about sex. And that's an important part of summer. It's definitely important part of my summer. So congratulations to Dirty Dancing, which i still blush when i watch that's it congratulations to Chris could you speak a little bit about what you learned about sex from Patrick Swayze actually i gotta say i had a pretty um formative date experience i got dumped in i think sixth grade after seeing ghost really Really? Yeah. I took a girl on a date to Ghost

and then she was like, I just want to be friends. Would you say you got ghosted? I mean, in a way, yeah. I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, Fantasy. It's a sensitive subject for me. At least at that time, you were still- It started my lifelong love of pottery though. That's the thing well i was actually just gonna say like because i think i remember seeing ghosts and specifically the pottery scene and being like what's going on here and does it have something to do with sex and like patrick swasey as metaphor for sex is like apparently all the sex ed that i got as a young child so i i get thank you to him, I suppose. And to pottery.

The other thing about the ghost scene, which has nothing to do with summer movies, but have you guys ever done ceramics? Yeah. Like on the wheel? Yeah, you haven't. But it's like ceramics are like really hard and you have to like actually like really like press the clay. It's like a very like physical, you know, which is a metaphor in its own way. But it just I really don't think that the ghost scene is accurate. It would be like very hard to do that and to make a piece of pottery like that. But anyway, I think it would also be hard to dance like Patrick Swayze does in Dirty Dancing.

And I still it's all I hope for in life. Whenever I watch that movie, I always feel completely demoralized about my absolute lack of upper body strength. You know, Patrick Swayze is like a power lifter, but for ballet, it's insane. Yeah. Yeah. Um, before we get to my number one, which I think is kind of a shared number one, um, we all, we all want to talk about this movie. Um, are there any other kind of honorable mentions that you guys want to hit so that you don't get yelled at on Twitter? I would like to give an honorable mention and maybe some sort of special award to a person who I think subtly is actually the greatest purveyor of summer content that we have. And that is Bill Murray. Did you know that Bill Murray was in What About Bob,

Quick Change, Caddyshack, Meatballs, Moonrise Kingdom, and Ghostbusters? All summer movies. All movies set in the summer. That guy must have like, do you think he's like, let's shoot in the summer and then I'm going to go play golf for nine months? What is the deal with Bill Murray being in summer movies? I don't know. It's a great call. Bill Murray is just the absolute best. You know, any one of those could have been on this list.

He was just probably way ahead on the Adam Sandler. I want to go to a nice place with my family strategy. And he knew, like, let's just get to a warm climb. And we'll just hang out. All of these movies are like, half of these movies are in New York. And they're about being miserable in New York in the summer. Yeah, that's true. He is a patron saint

of summer though. Amanda, what about you? You got some honorable mentions? Yeah, I have a lot actually. So The Talented Mr. Ripley, you know, Chris and I talked about this. No disrespect, I want people to understand how much The Talented Mr. Ripley still means to me as a film, as a, you know, comment on how people are.

Can't you can't trust them. And also just, you know, Mediterranean aspirations. It's like really there. And I do think it technically happens in the summer because you can't really argue with the green speedo. But, you know, like people also get murdered. That's not really what I'm hoping for. Like, uh, you know, all of the time. So, and also we've talked about it a lot and that's really the reason I didn't put it on the list because we did a whole rewatchables about it and I bring it up on every time. Um, some other classics, the notebook, I, I, I kind of chickened out at the last minute and took the notebook off because it is similar to the dirty dancing and that it's like people are flung together in a summer resort environment and then you know various obstacles are in their way and then they find true love I don't think we talk about uh how great the notebook

is and particularly the Ryan Gosling Rachel McAdams scenes which are all like a summer romance just all time I I will find a way to talk about this movie at greater length at some point. Speaking of Nancy Meyers, the Parent Trap 1998 version took some points off for camp. But if you'd like camp, one of the great movies, one of the great Lindsay Lohan performances, in my opinion, we talked about A League of Their Own and The Sandlot, which I loved, and Mamma Mia, which is just, I would like to go to Greece right now. I've been thinking so much about the trip to Greece just from a standpoint of let me Google Greek locations and then see whether I could also go to Greece. And that was apparently the animating philosophy behind making the movie Mamma Mia. And congratulations to everyone who got to spend a

summer on a Greek island. I would like to. And also the ending of Mamma Mia, not the ending, but like the climactic scene when Meryl Streep just like screams the winner takes it all at Pierce Brosnan for like, you know, the length of the winner takes it all with just like a beautiful church on a cliff in the background. Sometimes it's amazing what movies can provide for you. And that's quite a scene. So that's my list. I really like Summer is what it comes down to. I also want to just throw in, since Amanda has been besmirching Summer Camp, to add to her case against summer camp the first three friday the 13th movies those are great those are the first one's pretty like nakedly anti-sex and it's just like if you if you fuck this person will cut you to pieces but the steve minor ones that come after

that are really like kind of fun summer movies to me two and three are good two is good i just i re-watch one, two and three a couple of months ago during quarantine. One is nuts. One is just like every, just like,

just everybody getting snuffed out. Yeah. Including Amanda's beloved Kevin Bacon. Just getting got. Oh no. Oh no. It's tough.

Chris, where are you on Kevin Bacon? He's fine. That's great. But you don't, you don't think he's one of the... I was thinking about it because...

One of the what? Attractive people. Yes, sure. Yeah. He's attractive. Yeah. Yeah. Sean and Bobby

don't really get it. There was recently the anniversary of Apollo 13, which is a core Amanda Summer movie, even though it's not set in the summer, set in April,

in case you were wondering. What do you think of young Kevin Bacon, though? Well, so you mean like Footloose Kevin Bacon? And Quicksilver and like this. He was a little bit more of a punk, like a punk back then. Yeah. Animal House.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, the Animal House one is like, that's a tough. No, I was trying to steer this to like shirtless Kevin Bacon at Apollo 13, which was like a very formative summer movie experience for me. And he's doing great. And I support him in all his endeavors. So the themes I think have emerged here.

For Amanda, the movies are about sexual awakening. Clearly. Yes. For Chris, they are about super sick shots. Just great. Just great cinematography. For Chris, they are about super sick shots. Just great cinematography and voyeurism.

And for me, they're about loneliness, desolation, fear, and privilege. And I don't know if a movie captures that any more than my number one and you know really a collective number one which is steven spielberg's jaws i don't want no volunteers i don't want no mates there's too many captains on this island ten thousand dollars for me by myself for that you get the head the tail the whole damn thing jaws i watched it again on July 4th. Jesus Christ. What a good movie. You guys remember when good movies were just coming out?

You know, it'd be 1988, you'd be six years old, and then you'd turn on TV and you'd be like, what is this good movie? Never heard of this. This is a movie about a shark. It's just extraordinary how that can happen. I wish I had less information about movies than I have right now. I wish I could be

a movie virgin again. Do you know that? No. No, it's not because I turned my brain into a Rolodex and I fucked myself and I can never have

the pure joy that Jaws can bring again. You want to be able to see Jaws for the first time or the third time. Yeah. Yeah. It's so special.

I do want that. Jaws has become such a touchstone this summer because of the behavior of our public officials, you know, of closing the beaches, or not in that case, you know. Now's your chance, Chris. You can go in on Fauci if you need to.

You've been wanting to take this guy down for months, and you have a platform to destroy Fauci here on the big picture. Do you think he'd hear it? Tony goes on lots of pods. He's on the pods. Yeah. Anthony, if you're listening, keep your head up, man.

That's all I got to say. Just keep your head up, bro. What were you saying about Jaws, Chris? I'm sorry. I derailed you. What is there to say about Jaws? It is the sort of feeling like the cool thing about Jaws is it'm sorry I derailed you what is there to say about Jaws it is it is um the sort of feeling like well the cool thing about Jaws is it also has like that sense of pressure that is on

summer um for lots of people you know what I mean like summer is not always like a vacation summer is also like sometimes for a lot of people like where they make their nut for the rest of the year um and a lot of that drives like the decisions that get made in Jaws, obviously. And I think that... God, I don't even know what to say about this movie anymore. It's just like just the perfect evocation of a summer

adventure. And also, a lot of ways, like a commentary on the idea of a, quote, perfect American summer. And like, you know, behind the the scenes, what goes into this sort of Norman Rockwell vision that we all have had put into our heads by the movies and really movies. I guess, are movies the primary vehicle for that idea of a summer? For me, they are.

But also, movies are a vehicle for most that idea of a summer for me they are but also most things movies are a vehicle for most things for me yeah i mean i think in the last 75 to 100 years they they're probably the clearest evocation of that idea and also you know the movie is at the risk of getting a little bit heady about it you know i'm only trying to say that amity is a summer town we need summer dollars it's like it's kind of summer and late stage capitalism kind of coming together. And then it's not, you know, it's, it's interesting. It's maybe even perfect that this became the template for the summer blockbuster, which totally changed movies. It totally changed the kinds of movies that we got. And that fear and anxiety of the shark is

the same fear and anxiety that's populating all that tenant conversation that we're having. You know, it's, you know, we need a big, noisy event to capture people's attention, to make sure that they're not being distracted by more important things. You know, all this stuff is kind of working in concert. And that's that's obviously operating outside of the text of just one of the most authentically entertaining things you can ever experience. It's still, you know, this movie is it's 45 years old this year and works like a charm to this day.

It's just an amazing thing to me. Yeah, there's a tremendous amount of meta text. And like, it is like a movie about the concept of summer and summer movies, but it just also rules as a movie that you can watch in the summer or really anytime. And it both like, and it evokes that experience of summer and going to the beach and being scared of the beach yeah and being scared of the beach

which I am constantly but also loving it it's a very complex dance but and just also commenting on it in a way that no one else

has been able to do since Chris where are you at on the Jaws franchise you think they should bring it back would you add to it or start over because I don't the at on the Jaws franchise? Do you think they should bring it back? Would you add to it or start over? Because the problem with the Jaws franchise is you cannot remake Jaws.

So you would just be a failure for doing that. But I don't really know what's a Jaws sequel. And also, aren't all of Brody's offspring now dead from shark attacks within the Jaws franchise? I guess you could try to do some kind of like what David Gordon Green and Danny McBride did with Halloween where you like wipe away a bunch

of the sequels and start like the day after Jaws. I have also pitched Amity as an idea of like doing like the town of Amity but like you know the wire kind of. Keep going no i the idea is basically like what's up with the mayor what's what's what's like what's like october 3rd like for that mayor and what's going on like does brody stay you know like all this stuff you know like i what happens to richard richard dreyfus's character you know like i got ideas you know you guys can reach out to my team.

Yeah, I think what Mayor Vaughn needs is a kind of a Robert Mueller-esque figure to kind of come in and investigate some of the work that he's been doing. Think about that show. Wouldn't Netflix be into that show? Would you want to watch Jaws in the age of Twitter?

What would happen if there was just a huge controversial, like, situation at a small beach town, but we could also use hashtags? Like, wouldn't that be the best? No, that would be the worst. It would be awful.

At Mayor Vaughn. Just FYI, Cape Cod, by the way, continues to have major shark problems. I read a piece, like, a tremendous piece in the New York Times recently that was about like the continuing shark problem and all of the experts in the piece like the the Cape Cod shark guy and the Cape Cod you know Coast Guard etc have definitely seen Jaws and they know that they have to be giving quotes on the

Jaws level like the scientist compared Cape Cod to a restaurant that has a lot of buzz. And so the sharks keep coming at a greater rate every year because they know that Cape Cod, it's a great restaurant. That happened in the New York Times. So we don't need another Jaws. You can just watch Cape Cod. Please, if you're in Cape Cod, be safe. Sean, I feel like if Jaws was really happening, you would be like the Louise Mensch of Jaws. You would just be adding Marivon all the time, being like, I hope you know you will die in jail, sir. Yes, I think that's right.

That's probably what I would be. If you've seen my Twitter activity, you know that that's my pursuit every day. That's your no shame, sir. both of you next week. We're planning a little bit of a special mini theme week on the big picture next week about the movies of 2010 and whether 2010 was a significantly important year in recent movie history. We'll talk about a couple of personal favorites and maybe we'll argue a bit over what's the best that we saw from that year. In the meantime, put on some sunscreen, be careful, wear a mask. Thanks for listening to the big picture.