Rozzy's Recs: Summer Movie Version
Babe wake up, new Rozzy's Recs just dropped
My favorite season has always been summer. The entire few months feel almost like a liminal space of sorts, where magic might actually be real, and childhood nostalgia rules my emotional landscape. I love the sticky, sweaty warmth of the bright sun, and the freckles and burns it leaves behind on my skin. I love pool parties and beach days and late nights at the movie theater downing cherry icees and salty pretzel bites. I love sangria and mangos and overpriced ice cream cones. And because summer is my favorite season, it’s also my favorite vibe for a movie to emulate.
While summer technically isn’t a genre, in my heart it is, and I’ve got an incredibly long list of films that capture the aesthetic perfectly. The following is a pretty comprehensive guide of those summer movies, but there are still an embarrassing amount of films that I cut for length purposes, so if you’d like even more recommendations, or to avoid the yapping portion of this list, I have the longer version on Letterboxd.
Summer Fun for the Whole Family
These are some PG bangers that, well, the whole family can enjoy. You might just put it on for your little cousins at the family barbecue, but somehow find yourself hard-pressed to leave the room, much preferring the whimsy of a childhood summer classic to watching your uncles take turns seeing who can cook the perfect burger. They are funny, they are heartfelt, and when the movie ends you feel a sudden yearning for a more vibrant life to lead (at least… I do.) You’ve probably already seen them a billion times, but here’s a reminder that it’s never too soon for a rewatch.
High School Musical 2 (2007)
Honestly, I could make an argument for HSM2 to belong in literally any of the categories I’ve created for this list, but this is THEE summer movie, so I really wanted it to be the first one I mention. (Also, I’d like more people to look at Zac Efron’s face in the promo picture, because I’ve been saying for years that there’s something slightly off about it. That’s not quite him- there’s a weird uncanny valley thing going on and I want more people to bear witness.) But anyway, this is the summer movie to end all summer movies. It has the songs, it has the wardrobe, it has the incredible fake tans, it has the pool… It was a seminal text in our childhoods, and brings back the most perfect nostalgic feeling for summers when our lives were still simple. 10/10!
Ponyo (2008)
Ugh, my children <3 Truly, one of Ghibli’s best, and the way water is portrayed in this movie is absolutely stunning. It has all the whimsy of childhood summers and all the anxiety-inducing moments of teenaged summers (feels like the world is ending), and it is a Little Mermaid retelling! Fun! I love the score, I love the use of colors, and it’s such a feel-good movie. Perfect for those lazy summer days when the sadness starts to creep in- Ponyo will cure that.
The Parent Trap (1998)
A summer camp classic, and still shockingly culturally relevant?? In the past couple of years, it has been recreated in the plots of Dicks: the Musical (happy pride month) and Set It Up, but I swear I’m missing a handful of recent movies that also reference it. My parents were raised on the 60s movie, but even they agree that this is one of the few times when the remake just outshines its original text. Lindsay Lohan deserved an Oscar for her performances, and both Chessy and the tye-dye girl made a generation of young girls gay (happy pride!)
Luca (2021)
Once again, my children <3 This is, in my opinion, the most visually stunning Pixar film. The colors and landscapes are so incredibly rich, and it’s shot almost like a live-action movie. I appreciate it so much when the ‘camera’ in an animated feature is utilized to its full extent, and it certainly is in Luca. It is also an incredibly precious and uplifting movie about acceptance and growing up and it makes me sob every time!
Slumber Party Cinema
Sleepover movies are sacred texts. They follow the “chick flick” tradition of telling a woman-centered narrative designed to appeal to a largely female audience. They are not worried about being considered trivial; they are not worried about attempting prestige. Sleepover movies are specifically for the teens and tweens (to be watched during a slumber party, etc), giving credence to the experience of being a teenage girl, to the anxieties that accompany that and the friendships forged throughout. This is an especially gendered concept, and the idea of ‘universal girlhood’ is one that is rightfully critiqued for tending to leave out experiences of women of color but the movies themselves aren’t claiming to portray universal experiences. They present slices of adolescence that will come as familiar to some and not all. And I would loudly argue that the mere act of treating “girly” interests as worthy of respect creates an enjoyable movie (once again… to me!), so here are just a small handful of the slumber party films that have an inherently summer setting and/or vibe.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
Magical realism meets the angst of growing up meets summertime isolation. The pants fit perfectly across an entire group of friends! That’s delicious! It also utilizes the four different protagonists exceptionally well, creating four distinct stories that deal with some aspect of a loss of innocence, whether that be via sexuality, grief, or otherwise. It’s really delightful to watch a movie about a friend group that have such drastically different personalities but still know how to show up for each other.
Crossroads (2002)
I’d been trying to watch Crossroads for six years when it was finally added to Netflix, and it was everything I needed it to be. A roadtrip movie bolstered by the pop vocal performances of the legendary miss Britney Spears? Say less! Her performance was perfect (I love Britney so so much), and Zoe Saldana and Taryn Manning shine brightly opposite her as well. This is another movie about a friend group who are so different from each other yet still show up for and care for each others’ particular trials and tribulations. My only complaint is that there is also a man on this roadtrip :/
The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)
It is quite possible my lifelong desire to travel to Italy began with The Lizzie McGuire Movie. When it came out, I was young enough to think that eighth grade (their middle school graduation being how the movie begins) was grown up. Rewatching as an adult, it strikes me how young they are, how much caution they can still throw to the wind, how much your fellow tweens can surprise you! The Italian summer backdrop is an incredible mood booster, and it features one of Disney’s best songs (“What Dreams Are Made Of.”)
Monte Carlo (2011)
Not enough people are talking about Monte Carlo! Kind of one of the best The Prince and the Pauper retellings, and this is coming from an avid Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper fan. It features Selena Gomez giving her all as both a small town gal who’s always dreamed of Paris and a snotty rich British bitch who hates the poor. Her best friend is played by Katie Cassidy who is, for all intents and purposes, Texas Barbie, and Leighton Meester stars alongside as her uptight, depressed stepsister. Besides centering the three female leads and their dynamic, the movie also intentionally has their male love interests serve exclusively as eye candy. I’ve watched the dvd’s bonus features enough to know that they wanted to give teen girls a ‘choose-your-own-adventure flipbook’ of ‘ding dang delicious’ guys, so they made three different archetypes to lust after according to personal taste: all-American boy-next-door, Australian hunk, and French pretty boy. And personally, how delightful to have underdeveloped hot men to bolster a woman’s arc! Instead of the ever-present reverse!
Aquamarine (2006)
One of the best movies of all time and I’m not joking. I am not being ironic or silly. I am 100% serious. I’ve never seen a movie respect tween girls more, and in a society where tween and teen girls are blamed for everything, it is a giant gulp of fresh air. It is about friendship, and magic, and growing up, and summer. The color scheme is gorgeous and there are so many genuinely beautiful shots. If you want to complain about some of the cgi, I don’t want to hear it. It was 2006 and the shots of Aquamarine’s mermaid tail are fantastic! Open your hearts to whimsy. It also has genuinely the best male love interest of all time? He just adds to the ‘this movie respects tween girls so so much’ statement. For one, they reverse male gaze him, in the sense that there are multiple shots where he is filmed in slo-mo with the intent to romanticize, but it is also simply that. A romanticized viewpoint, not an objectified shot, because he is being gazed at by two 12-year-old girls and their (16? 17?)-year-old mermaid friend. Their slo-mo, music-playing-in-the-background gaze still recognizes him as human! But even better than that, he is so kind. That is like… his best characteristic. Emma Roberts’s character is terrified of water and he never belittles her for it, instead defending her more than once for her fear. Sara Paxton’s character is a mermaid, which he does not know about, and constantly throughout the movie, there is some kind of mermaid lore/logic that causes her to panic, in ways that a lesser movie/character would show to be hysterical, but he never treats her worries and theatrics as anything other than completely serious and valid. It’s actually, genuinely swoonworthy to me - to this day!!!!! - for him to be that sympathetic. Literally one of the best movies of all time, I want it in my bloodstream.
Cracking Open a Cold One With the Boys
I made a gendered category for girls, and while I am not one to center men in really any conversation, I actually also have a few quintessential summer movies that are specifically about boys. Didn’t plan on doing a “boy” category, and obviously as a woman I still enjoy them, too. Something something, gender isn’t relevant to storytelling, whatever. Most of my readers know me- I could wax philosophical about gender constructs for hours and at some point I will, but this is not that time or place. These three movies are summer through and through, and they focus on a male coming-of-age. (They all also have some pretty blatant hits of misogyny within them :/ There is still much good to be had from the rest of the storytelling, but unfortunately there are uncomfortable objectifying moments in all three. Boy movies…)
The Sandlot (1993)
It always shocks people when I tell them this, but I loved sports movies as a kid. My rotation of frequent rewatches featured a large number of sports films, and my very favorite was The Sandlot. Something about the late 50s/early 60s suburbia setting adds to the summertime vibes, not to mention the most magical moment in the movie happens during the fourth of July. There’s something nostalgic about The Sandlot and it’s wildly quotable - “you’re killing me smalls,” “heroes get remembered, but legends never die,” “some lady named Ruth. Baby Ruth,” and so on and so forth. (And for the record, it’s not even the ‘you play ball like a girl’ scene that I consider the biggest misogynistic offense in the movie. It’s the Wendy Peffercorn subplot.)
Adventureland (2009)
Adventureland is a little bit perfect for the unemployed recent college graduate who takes the first summer job they can find. It’s one of those slow summers, where nothing happens yet your life changes drastically. The amusement park setting adds to the vibes, and it’s a pretty sturdy slice-of-life. (Are like… half the female cast objectified, though? Yes.)
The Way Way Back (2013)
The Way Way Back is honestly incredible. It has a stellar cast and I can’t commend its pacing enough. It works emotionally and comedically, and is a quintessential summer bop. (Oh Sam Rockwell, how I’m enamored by you, even when you’re teaching an awkward teenage boy to objectify women in swimsuits at a water park…)
Summertime Sadness
Cue the Lana Del Rey (lol.) There are varying levels of sadness to be had in this category, from bittersweet feelings that turn to hope by the end of the film to full-on dry-heaving from crying so hard. Most could be categorized as romantic, all could be argued as coming-of-age, and all evoke a feeling of melancholia within me, at least for part of their run-times.
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Absolutely stunning visuals, beautiful score, and incredibly heartfelt. It’s about growing up, independence, (self) acceptance, depression, and burnout. It’s magical and grounded at the same time. Love love love Kiki. This movie changes my life in a new way every time that I watch it, and I earnestly believe it is Studio Ghibli’s best.
Roman Holiday (1953)
Can you believe that this was Audrey Hepburn’s first leading role? And it (rightfully) won her the Oscar?!! It’s such a delight- another Italy-based summer romp, and it’s got every ounce of Old Hollywood charm that you’d want it to. One of my favorite movies of all time, but sad in the sense that La La Land borrowed its ending from Roman Holiday.
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
This was my first Wes Anderson, and I can’t imagine a better introduction to his aesthetic. It’s also subjectively his best film. The color palette, as always, eats, but this story is also wildly moving. It’s coming-of-age and feeling/being misunderstood by your family and the adults in your life. It’s one last big adventure! In many ways, Moonrise Kingdom feels very Peter Pan-esque to me, and its ending can feel hopeful, bittersweet, or depressing depending on my mood going in.
Dirty Dancing (1987)
The iconic “nobody puts baby in the corner” line is like… incredibly underwhelming in the context of the film, but the following dance number is still spectacular. And it’s not the doomed summer romance of Dirty Dancing that makes it a sad movie, but the abortion plotline that sparks it. Even before Roe v. Wade was overturned (I wish death on those Supreme Court justices), being brought into a 1960s pre-Roe world and seeing how a woman suffers due to that political environment was enough to bring me to tears, but watching it now? Now that less than half of the fifty states have completely accessible abortion? Hahahahaha, I cried so hard I dry-heaved during my last watch (I genuinely, earnestly wish the worst on everyone who allowed that to happen, Biden included <3) Still an all-timer movie, though!
Call Me By Your Name (2017)
I was just a year too young when this came out to be able to see it in theaters (and there was no way in hell I was going to ask either of my parents to take me to it), so I believed the marketing narrative that was trying to sell this as a romance. As someone who’s now seen it two or three times, I am frankly bewildered by that take??? It’s NOT a romance- it is a story of a teen being groomed. The gay “love story” is not that at all, but instead one of abuse, hence why I find it a harrowing and depressing movie. It is visually stunning - every shot is a painting - and the story is quite moving and compelling, but if you’re coming out of a viewing experience praising its central love affair, you’ve misinterpreted the whole thing. There are some great moments in Call Me By Your Name that still validate and reaffirm lgbtq+ identities, and I agree that it is a centrally queer coming-of-age story, but it is a sad one!
Aftersun (2022)
Heartbreaking. Incredibly heartbreaking. Reflecting on childhood and seeing it without rose-colored lenses. Recognizing your parents as human and flawed and full of internal struggle. Seeing sacrifices and the ways they failed. The centerpiece of the film is the relationship between dad and daughter and holy fuck it makes me want to puke. Phenomenal performances all around. Devastating conclusion. 10/10.
Theater Kid Summer
I honestly just think that summer is the prime season for theater kids… there is no logical, tangible reason for this, but I can sort of explain why the personal association is there. From practically the beginning of my love affair with summers, I’ve had High School Musical 2, which you might recall me mentioning as able to fit into any of these categories. And HSM2 is very aggressively a theater kid text, a seminal film about theater kids singing and dancing and working in the summer. It’s summer vacation as ruled by theatricality, so summer always feels as though it should be theatrical to me. On a broader scale, I do think that everyone gets vaguely more dramatic in the summertime. The heat, disruption of routines, and general horniness will bring that out in even the most chill of us all. And even if the sweltering summer sun doesn’t bring out a desire to break out into dance for you specifically, you might still enjoy watching others give their all to a musical number that invokes the season.
Grease (1978)
Listen… I am the world’s biggest Grease 2 defender. I am ride-or-die with Grease 2. I could wax poetic about how it’s better than the original. However, the first Grease is way more summer. To begin with “Summer Lovin’” and end with a high school graduation is incredibly perfect to evoke a summer atmosphere. There’s just also something to be said for the inherent summer quality of Americana? Finding a way to watch this at a drive-in theater on a hot July night would be like… the most perfect way to experience the movie! It’s the perfect musical to put on early in the season for your parents to enjoy with you, too. They’ll be nostalgic for their childhood watching it, you’ll be nostalgic about how much of a relief graduating high school was, the whole thing feels like sunshine- 10/10 theater kid summer experience.
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Simply one of the best movies ever made. I know you know it. Summer and happiness (and ouzo) distilled! Thank you ABBA, thank you Meryl Streep and every other diva in that cast, thank you gay Colin Firth, thank you Pierce Brosnan for committing to your vocals even though we all knew they weren’t ideal <3
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
People who like the first Mamma Mia but not the second are weak! It’s somehow gayer than the first one (I will not elaborate but I will accept questions should they be thrown at me), and has even more bops! “Waterloo” is actually given a plot reason to be sung (this is not to say the “Waterloo” credits from the first aren’t perfect and wonderful), “Andante Andante” and “One of Us” are exquisite, “Why Did It Have to Be Me?” makes yet another generation bisexual, and even with all that deliciousness happening, “Angel Eyes” still comes along and steals Best Musical Number award. They hired Cher, and she hired Andy Garcia, and the young cast is also delectable. Are there some questionable continuity moments? Yes. But there are double the hot people and musical summery vibes, so we overlook that! It’s about the experience!
Theater Camp (2023)
Underrated classic. If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it right now (I’m looking at you Cheyenne.) I would say this is the quintessential theater kid summer- it is literally theater camp, and is beyond committed to the setting. If you attended a theater camp (or really even any sleepaway camp) as a kid, the cabins will be familiar to you, and the antics that ensue when you put together a hoard of twelve-year-old future Broadway performers help to heighten the mood. For me, a mockumentary is a hard niche to get right, but the formatting works so well for Theater Camp, knowing exactly when to lean into that storytelling device versus when to let the plot carry itself. I love!
Barbie (2023)
Not a theater kid bop by the typical means as it’s not a true musical (although there are some killer song and dance sequences) but a theater kid movie in the sense that it is high camp! The sets, costumes, and performances are over-the-top, lending to an incredibly theatric production. It’s summery in its prominent bright colors and its beach setting, in both the real world and Barbieland. Furthermore, everyone remembers “Barbie Summer.” It was only last year. Its July release was integral to the hyper-marketing of the movie, and everyone was talking about, posting about, etc., their own personal “Barbie Summers.” Just because it’s no longer 2023 doesn’t mean you can’t still have a Barbie Summer!
Summer Television
Bit of a bonus category, but sometimes you’re not in the mood for a feature-length film. Sometimes, you just want to watch a half-hour long children’s show that both captures that summertime feeling while also making you even more nostalgic for your youth. These are both Disney shows, and it’s a bit disheartening to me that I can’t think of any other television that feels like summer. I’m way more of a movie gal than a show gal though, so please gimme some recs for summer shows if you have any!
Gravity Falls (2012-2016)
For a show with such a supernatural “Twin Peaks for kids” vibe, it sure takes its summer setting seriously! There are pool days and lake days, and the emotional turmoil that comes with only living somewhere for a season, with all the new friends and routines that you have to leave behind. Gravity Falls is fun because it operates under both a monster-of-the-week format as well as keeping to an overarching through-line mystery.
Phineas and Ferb (2007-2015)
Kind of the greatest to ever do it, tbh. Phineas and Ferb really carefully established its plot pattern in season one, and then got to have fun playing around with expectations for the remainder of the time. It created its own tropes, then found humorous ways to break them, while still adhering to the structure of each episode (and movie special!) The whole thing takes place during the 104 days of summer vacation, so it’s the perfect thing to watch when looking for summer activity inspiration.
Bonus
Challengers (2024)
It’s a Challengers summer… I won’t be elaborating.
Jaws (1975)
This is a bonus pick solely because I haven’t seen it yet, but boy howdy do I need to. Shark movies give off inherently summer vibes due to their general campiness and overall dependence on being in the water. I honestly really love shitty shark movies- I think they’re the kind of bad that is fun and enjoyable - and I have been told that Jaws is the only non-shitty shark movie. I honestly don’t know how I haven’t watched it before, but it’s high on the summer priority list!
This was fun, but tough for me. I would have added Stand By Me, but that might not be considered a summer movie. If you’re interested in bad shark movies… Jaws 3 has some hilarious 3D effects in its 2D viewing and Jaws 4 (The Revenge) has Michael Caine.