11 Movies With ‘Summer’ in the Title for When It’s Too Hot to Go Outside

Even if your primary familiarity with the sport of surfing is the recent revelation that Jonah Hill banned his pro surfer girlfriend from posting bikini pics, you will enjoy this 1966 documentary from Bruce Brown (aka the “pioneer of the surf film”). The Endless Summer takes place across the coasts of Australia and South Africa as Mike Hynson and Robert August chase waves—and other big, crushing things like fulfillment. Not only is the film refreshingly devoid of clichés, it’s just really beautiful to look at it.

In the summer of 1977, an Italian-American neighborhood in The Bronx was terrorized by a real life serial killer who identified himself as “Son of Sam.” Years later, Spike Lee and Michael Imperioli co-wrote Summer of Sam, a cinematic snapshot of the moment, depicting the murder investigation through the eyes of fictional residents that happen to be some very messy men. The true crime thriller yielded some very mixed reviews but I find it compelling for much of the same reasons Roger Ebert wrote in his 1999 review: “It’s not about the killer, but about his victims—not those he murdered, but those whose overheated imaginations bloomed into a lynch mob mentality. There is a sequence near the end of the film that shows a side of human nature as ugly as it is familiar: the fever to find someone to blame and the need to blame someone who is different.”

Once upon a time Emily Blunt portrayed a bad teenager in the British countryside who introduces a local girl to petty crime, passionate sex, and suicide pacts. It’s moody queer cinema at its best, and occasionally, most brutal. There’s good old fashioned religious guilt, magic mushrooms, and all the coming-of-age tropes audiences have come to expect from films about teenage girls determining who they are, and yet none of it feels tired. Even better? It’s a story about two queer women that doesn’t culminate in tragedy or a cloying happy ending. Instead, My Summer of Love is a reminder of the first time you found out that the coolest girl in the world isn’t always who she says she is. That’s just a part of growing up.

Where do I begin? This adaptation of William Faulkner’s best-selling novel will instantly make you understand the need for Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward’s infamous “fuck hut.” Their chemistry? Good lord. Something tells me the foundation of the fuck hut wasn’t strong enough to sustain the sheer force of it. The Long, Hot Summer is basically a rom com meets a southern soap opera—which is exactly why everyone should watch it. And the fact that it launched Newman and Woodward’s love story? Hollywood just doesn’t make ’em like this anymore.

I don’t know how to describe One Crazy Summer as anything but an 1980's fever dream. John Cusack is an art school hopeful called Hoops McCann and Demi Moore portrays Cassandra, a rock singer on the run from a motorcycle gang. Believe it or not, these two are the anchors of an ensemble that includes the following: Cookie, a rich asshole’s girlfriend; a weirdo known as Ack-Ack Raymond; and the latter’s friend, Egg, who, at one point in the movie, gets stuck in a Godzilla costume. I don’t know, man. It’s not not bizarre. On the other hand, it was filmed in Hyannis and features a classic “haves vs. have nots” subplot, so, there are far worse movies to watch when you’ve grown tired of wiping sweat from every orifice.

Want to see Ryan Philippe act as if his rent was due the second he stepped off set? Have a hankering to snicker at some of the worst slasher movie dialogue ever committed to film? I Know What You Did Last Summer is the blockbuster for you. You know the story: As four recent high school graduates are out on a drunken joyride to celebrate the Fourth of July, they accidentally kill a man. As any group of thinking-people would do, they then decide to dump his unresponsive body in the nearest body of water. As it happens, the man wasn’t actually dead—and he’s vengeful. I Know What You Did Last Summer is mostly just suspenseful until its bloody finale. Philippe’s performances of raw machismo—one of which includes literally choking Jennifer Love Hewitt during an argument—are accidental comedy gold.

I won’t lie, Hot Summer Nights isn’t the best movie. But the cast—most notably Timothée Chalamet as a teenage drug dealer—is amusing as all hell. There’s some good old-fashioned appeals to ’90s nostalgia, a very solid soundtrack, and a plot that will keep you engrossed, if only because it’s a bit of a mess—let’s just say, it’s not exactly airtight. But if you’re game for A24's gritty—and a little goofy—take on a coming-of-age cautionary tale, you just might love this.

During the summer of 1969, as Woodstock dominated international media attention, Harlem’s Mount Morris Park played host to a lesser-known—yet just as culturally significant—event known as the Harlem Cultural Festival. As seen in Questlove’s Oscar-winning Summer of Soul, the testament to Black pride convened countless community activists, preeminent civic leaders, and performers for six Sundays, including Nina Simone, B.B. King, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Stevie Wonder. Every performance was free, and the festival drew hundreds of thousands of revelers, yet history would remember little else about it for decades.

Summer of Soul might just be one of the most moving music documentaries I’ve seen in the last five years. It will make you sing, dance, and feel deeply on your couch. And if it’s your introduction to the event, it will likely piss you off that you’ve only just learned of its magic.