[Nerdspresso] It's Hot Outside, but Movies are Always Cool

Well, bust out the hot dogs and the sunscreen, it’s summertime! School is out, the temps are hot and according to that old song, it’s summertime and the living is easy. For those who celebrate, summertime is vacations, swimming pools and movie stars. And for those that don’t, it just means going to work when it’s really humid and there are a lot of kids out on the street.

When I was young, my family would spend two weeks every summer on a road trip to see Midwest relatives and then a week in August at the beach. The rest of the time was spent outside evading the neighborhood bullies, attending vacation bible school and checking out the neighborhood picture show. I was scarred by Friday the 13th so no sleepaway camp for me. As I got older, the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day was occupied with summer school, part-time jobs, and escaping to the local multiplex.

Movies were always a big part of my summer plans, especially in my high school and early college days when I had a job at the local movie house. I mean, getting paid to swipe popcorn, snag movie posters and sneak a peek at all the new releases? It was nerdvana! Nothing better than spending those long hot months in a big, cool dark room, surrounded by a bunch of candy munching strangers as stories told with pictures and light flicker on a giant screen before you.

Summer and movies go together like trips to the beach and sandy bologna sandwiches. Whether you’re on vacation at the family cabin or stuck babysitting your tribe home from school, let me suggest some movies to help you wile away the hours. While it might make sense to populate my list with every major popcorn flick from my past, I thought I’d go for some deep cuts. I’m sharing with you what I watch to get in that summer frame of mind. Once you’re an adult, summer never feels the same, but these flicks take me right back. They are my cinematic lexicon for that very special time of year.  

Summer School

This 1987 comedy was playing the first summer I was an usher at the AMC Interstate Six. It reminds me of sweeping popcorn, mopping spilt soda and shining flashlights at amorous teens so they’d keep their hands to themselves (oh, the follies of youth). The legendary Carl Reiner directed this tale of slacker gym teacher/beach bum Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon in his pre-NCIS days when he still had charm and a sense of humor). Shoop is roped into administering summer school to a group of miscreants straight out of central casting. The laughs here are easy and the whole movie can be enjoyed like an ice cream cone for your soul. The affable cast includes a young Courtney Thorne-Smith (before she made her name on Ally McBeal), a pre-Cheers Kirstie Alley, and Scream Queen Shawnee Smith (the Saw movies) along with the lovable side characters, Chainsaw and Dave. For me, it’s not summer until Mr. Shoop says it’s summer.

National Lampoon’s Vacation

In 1983, John Hughes spoke for all of us when he penned this paean to the family road trip in his first produced screenplay. Helmed by Harold Ramis and starring Chevy Chase as goofball dad Clark Griswold, this iconic comedy hilariously chronicles one family’s misadventures on their way to their ideal vacation spot: Wally World! Growing up, my family spent every summer in the car so this one hits hard. I definitely related to the crowded station wagon, cheap motels, roadside attractions and awkward encounters with distant relatives. Although no one in my family was quite as colorful as Cousin Eddie. My mom took me to see this one in the theater but only after calling the box office to better understand why it was rated R. Thankfully, she deemed the salty language and casual nudity acceptable for my fragile teenaged sensibilities and I got bragging rights with my envious posse of pubescent nerds. My mom even went back to see it again with my dad! This flick became a family staple and we still quote this movie to today. Skip the sequels and stay with the OG.

Meatballs

Are you ready for the summer? Are you ready for the sunshine? Are you ready for the birds and bees, the apple trees and a whole lotta foolin’ around? A time capsule for the late ‘70s, Meatballs is quintessential summer fun. The cast is young and game, looking like they just wore their own clothes to the set (What was up with all the cowboy boots and overalls in 1979?). Ivan Reitman (pre-Ghostbusters) directs Bill Murray (in the midst of his SNL heydays) as he leads a shaggy troupe of counselors at the fictional Camp Northstar. I remember all my older cousins going to see this movie and excluding me because I was too young. It created an expectation in my little kid mind that Meatballs was akin to Deep Throat in terms of adult content, which so isn’t the case. The edgiest thing in this movie is a hot dog eating contest. I only went to summer camp once (again PTSD from watching Friday the 13th), but if I had ever gone again, I would have bunked at Northstar.

Adventureland

Remember the bittersweet limbo of those weeks following your college graduation? You didn’t feel like an adult but you certainly weren’t a kid any more. You toiled away in some brainless minimum wage gig, biding your time until what came next. Now looking back, you realize that was a pretty carefree summer despite all the rootlessness and anxiety. Writer/Director Greg Mottola (Superbad and Confess, Fletch) perfectly captures that vibe in this 2009 comedy drama and gets snaps for getting endearing performances from two of the most annoying actors working today. Jesse Eisenberg plays a restless college grad working at a rundown amusement park who sparks a romance with morose co-worker Kristen Stewart. Set in the summer of 1987, the movie packs its soundtrack with New Wave and ’80’s pop classics that play like a first-class ticket on the wayback machine. The cast features major scene stealers, including Bill Hader, Kristin Wiig and a pre-Deadpool Ryan Reynolds.

Stand By Me

Never was the time more fleeting than in those dying days of summer before you started junior high. Leaving behind the safety net of your elementary school, you felt like your childhood was slipping away. You and your friends were trying desperately to make every day count. What could you do to ensure that this summer was legendary? How about going to see a dead body? Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me, based on a Stephen King novella, recreates summer’s dog days when all that mattered was your friends and the adventure waiting just beyond your backyard. In 1986, this cast of emerging talent (Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell and Kiefer Sutherland) gave us a compelling story of friendship and innocence lost during the summer of 1959.  Missing the macabre stylings of most Stephen King’s stories, Reiner’s adaption is a soft spoken and heartfelt ode to growing up.

If you haven’t deduced by now, my memories of summer are deeply intertwined with going to the movies. But then, all my memories are pretty connected to movies. It’s just how my brain works. These flicks work like sense memory on me. They capture what it feels like to be on summer vacation. I’m sure you have your own special list that does the same thing for you. So when the thermometer hits the triple digits over the new few weeks, I suggest you dial down the AC, pop some Orville Redenbacher in the microwave and crank up your favorite flicks. When summer is hot, movies are always cool.

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