North Texas Daily

Summer is all about getting outside and spending time in the nice weather with people you care about. It is the time of year to relax and also make some memories. Since I am someone who never does any of that, I normally find myself watching a lot of movies that capture the summer feeling instead. There is no shame in wanting to stay inside during the summer, especially when you can cook a full course meal on the sidewalk because of how hot it is. Whether the movie directly incorporates summer into the plot, or there is just an overwhelming sense of the time of year, here are the five movies you should watch this summer.

“I Know What You Did Last Summer” (1997)

I mean, it is literally in the title. “I Know What You Did Last Summer” is so good for so many reasons, except it is not at the same time. I will be the first one to tell you this movie has some of the corniest acting and strangest character choices you will ever see. Half of the jokes revolving around how no one has common sense in horror movies spawned from this film alone. Sometimes explanations aren’t needed, and that is the case here. This movie feels like such a time capsule, and it is the perfect summer-centered horror movie to sit down and watch with your friends. For better or for worse, this movie had lasting impacts on the horror genre and it is always fun to see where certain horror tropes came from. This is not the best movie on the list, but it is a movie I will always try to watch when summer rolls around.

“Ghostbusters” (1984)

This movie just feels like summer to me. Movies in the summer are supposed to at the beach, or on an island, yet I think of “Ghostbusters” before I think of anything else. I watched this movie for the first time during the summer when I was a little kid, and as soon as the credits started rolling I started the movie over again. I don’t know if the giant marshmallow monster makes me think of eating s’mores in the summer, or if it was seeing grown men profusely sweat as they busted the paranormal, but there is an overwhelming summer feel to it all. For a movie that came out almost four decades ago, the punchlines still hit and the spectacle is still huge. This movie feels like the textbook definition of a summer blockbuster, and there is no doubt it is a classic all these years later.

“Adventureland” (2009)

I watched this movie at the perfect time when I was growing up, and watching it during the summer definitely made it even more special. I said I was going to include some movies with summertime playing an actual part in the film, and that is most prevalent in this film. With a cast including Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg, the awkward charm is practically carrying the whole film. Nothing screams summer like a teen comedy about working at an amusement park, and nothing screams perfect like Bill Hader playing a scene-stealing side character. This film is drenched in charisma and I think it makes for a great movie to watch this summer.

“Eighth Grade” (2018)

A key part of the summer is reflecting on the school year you just finished, and there is no better way to do that than watching “Eighth Grade.” To this day, I cannot fully explain why I love this movie so much. Everyone I talk to will tell me how the movie made them cringe and remind them of how terrible middle school was, but that is the best part about it. We are all constantly growing, and seeing someone like Elsie Fisher’s character, Kayla, go through those same growing pains is a brilliant way to connect with your audience on a whole other level. Summer is always the part of the year when we sit back and realize how fast the year is going by, just like how moving on from middle school makes you realize how fast you are moving through school. Bo Burnham’s directorial debut will always be a summer movie to me, and it does a perfect job of putting yourself back in your eighth-grade shoes.

“Mid90s” (2018)

2018 was such a good year for coming of age stories set in the summer. Jonah Hill knocks it out of the park with his first movie as a director, and the story behind the cast is even better. Hill cast them as skaters and taught them how to be actors, instead of trying to turn actors into skaters. They got to spend a whole summer doing what they love and nothing says summer more than that. This is another film that belongs in a time capsule, just because I genuinely think nothing will ever be made like it again. It is so specific and masterfully constructed, there was no denying Hill put a lot of heart into the entire project.

Featured Illustration by J. Robynn Aviles