Summer Movies
(or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog) and Other Blatant Attempts to Appease the Masses. By M.G. Wood #7 SOMETHING WILD (1986) Directed by Jonathan Demme. Starring Jeff Daniels and Melanie Griffith Is it set during the Summer? I don’t know. When LuLu (Griffith) picks up the unsuspecting Yuppie (Daniels) at the little café at the beginning of the film, everyone is dressed in brightly colored clothes, and if I’m not mistaken, the car Griffith lures Daniels away in, is a convertible. Everything in SOMETHING WILD is bright and colorful, including the odd array of characters Griffith and Daniels encounter on their road trip to Ms. LuLu’s fateful High School Reunion. The first 3/4 of SOMETHING WILD is sexually adventurous and breezily entertaining, making the dark and violent climax (aided by the monumental debut of Ray Liotta) all the more shocking, akin to the jolt you get when you jump into an ice-cold pool on a blistering hot day. #6 THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) Directed by Jack Arnold. Starring Richard Carlson and Julie Adams Ahhh, feel that cool Amazonian water as you dip down into it’s mysterious blackness, the jungle vegetation tickles your toes. A tug. A jerk. You’re taken down to the very depths. All the while wise-cracking “scientists” and tug-boat captains and wily dames prance about upon the deck of a water-vessel of questionable reliance, leaving you to dissolve and disappear into the darkest corners of the river floor. You have become captive, to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON! #1 JAWS (1975)
Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss #8 WHAT ABOUT BOB? (1991) Directed by Frank Oz. Starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss What about WHAT ABOUT BOB irritates people so? I know a lot of people that absolutely despise this movie. Basically, Bob is a neurotic hypochondriac with serious separation anxiety, not to mention he’s an agoraphobic. Bob meets Dr. Leo Marvin (Dreyfuss), an egomaniac psychiatrist who teaches Bob a very rudimentary step-by-step way to deal with his problems. Bob is instantly optimistic about his chances of being cured. And then Dr. Marvin leaves for vacation. Bob panics. Bob stalks Dr. Marvin. Why doesn’t Bob just go away? Do you suppose the ones that hate WHAT ABOUT BOB so much, are in fact Dr. Marvin? #10 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S SEX COMEDY (1982) Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen, Mia Farrow and José Ferrer Woody Allen plays an inventor living in a farm house with his beautiful but frigid wife (Mary Steenburgen) nestled within a lush forest in upstate New York. Tony Roberts plays a libidinous doctor from the city come to visit his old friend the inventor; the good doctor brings his nurse in tow (Julie Hagerty). Also visiting this weekend is a Freudian Psychologist (Jose Ferrer) along with his fiancee (Mia Farrow). Add Woody Allen’s signature mix of sexual politics and sparkling dialogue, and you have an underrated gem that even die-hard Allen fans sometimes overlook. It’s light and airy, and unusually picturesque for a Woody Allen film.
#4 BOX OF MOONLIGHT (1996)
Directed by Tom DiCillo. Starring John Turturro and Sam Rockwell John Turturro plays an uptight construction foreman who after finishing up a project early decides to take a side trip to a Lake he fondly remembers from his childhood; Summers spent swimming and diving and sliding down the enormous slide that sits in the middle of the lake. Soon the memories evaporate and disillusion, when Turturro discovers the Lake trashed and deserted. In a most Preston Sturges fashion, writer/director Tom DiCillo detours Turturro’s character smack into The Kid, a wild and whimsical anarchist played with brilliant manic energy by Sam Rockwell. Imagine you were driving down a silent Southern side road in the heart of Summer and decided to stop and disappear into the deep green vegetation. Led by The Kid, nothing would ever be the same again. #9 SECRET WINDOW (2004) Directed by David Koepp. Starring Johnny Depp Oh sure this one may not have the prestige of some of Stephen King’s more illustrious film adaptations like THE SHINING (1980), MISERY (1990) or SALEM’S LOT (1979), but what SECRET WINDOW does have, is Johnny Depp, a really cool lake house, a pretty cool Twist ending, and of course the great John Turturro turning in a performance that’s part Slim Pickins, part Strom Thurmond, and a dash of Johnny Depp himself. But, more than anything, those nice steaming, golden ears of corn that Depp eats only accentuates the Summer vibe created by the gorgeous lakeside locale, ripe for a murderous yarn reminiscent of Hitchcock Summer fare ala REAR WINDOW (1954).
#5 DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (1994) Directed by Roman Polanski. Starring Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, and Stuart Wilson I love Chamber Dramas. Films set in one location with all the Action revolving in and around keen dialogue and flesh and blood Characters. We have three characters in Roman Polanski’s DEATH AND THE MAIDEN: Paulina and Gerardo Escobar, and Roberto Miranda. Location: a secluded beach house in an unnamed country (possibly South America). Sigourney Weaver gives the best performance of her career as she displays every raw nerve and damaged emotion on her face, while at the same time demonstrating her trademark physical prowess in scenes of great balletic power. .Polanski’s mastery of atmosphere is clearly apparent in the early scenes, as he builds tension and anxiety with flickering lights, sea winds, and minimal music. And the stage is set, for the entrance of Roberto Miranda as played by Ben Kingsley. Indescribable. Literally indescribable, because to talk about what happens after Roberto arrives at the house, would be to give the movie away. Suffice it to say, in this pressure cooker of a movie, heat emanates from the skin, and the tongue.
#3 DO THE RIGHT THING (1989) Directed by Spike Lee. Starring Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, and John Turturro Spike Lee saturates the screen with color, underpinned with a sweet, subtle jazz score by father Bill Lee. A Summer day in the city-life of America melting under the sun. The perfect Summer refresher for the mind and soul. Funny. Insightful. Beautiful.
#2 INHERIT THE WIND (1960) Directed by Stanley Kramer. Starring Spencer Tracy and Fredric March Uh, again, I’m not really sure this film was set during the summertime, but chances are it was, considering everyone sweats profusely in the courtroom where Spencer Tracy defends a schoolteacher on trial for teaching evolution to his class. Coincidentally, I first saw this film on TV as a teenager on a particularly sweltering summer day back in the halcyon 80's. I sweated as the characters on screen sweated, and I changed as the characters on the screen changed. I had often heard people say how a certain book or film or piece of music changed their lives, and up until then I could never really understand how. But, by the time Spencer Tracy delivers his masterful speech at the end of INHERIT THE WIND, passionately defending the right to Free Thought, I sat silent, thinking. And no other movie before, and few since, have moved me more.
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