Summer Movies on DVD
Ah yes, the sweat glistening on tanned skin, the sand meeting the crystal blue
ocean, the sun beating down on bronzed bodies… These are the things that
automatically come to mind when we think of ‘summer movies’, especially in
Australia...
One Australian ‘summer movie’ that went way beyond the usual ‘fun in the sun’
stereotype was
Puberty Blues (1981),
Bruce Beresford’s adaptation of the novel by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle
Carey. Written when they were still in their teens, the women recall the
growing pains of their teenage years spent on the beaches of ‘The Shire’ just
south of Sydney.
Nell Schofield and
Jad Capelja play “Deb” and “Sue”, two suburban girls desperate to break
into the “it” crowd. But it’s not as easy as it looks, with the results often
painful and humiliating. Beautifully photographed on the beaches of Cronulla,
Puberty Blues is a classic movie about teenage love. It’s achingly
honest and blackly funny, and stands the test of time.
Spike
Lee’s
Do The Right Thing (1989) is another great drama set in summer, but on
the other side of the planet: New York City. The temperature is “three feet
high and rising” on the hottest day of the year in the neighbourhood of
“Bed-Stuy” Brooklyn, and racial tensions are about to boil over. Lee stars as
Mookie, a pizza delivery boy for Sal’s Pizzeria, run by Italian-American Sal (Danny
Aiello) and his two ignorant sons Vito (Richard
Edson) and Pino (John
Turturro). A near riot takes place after Sal refuses to serve
African-American Radio Raheem (Bill
Nunn) and the police intervene with fatal force. This is still director
Lee’s best film to date: artfully made, intelligently written and a searing
indictment on the prejudice ingrained in American culture.
DVD rentals of surf movies go through the roof during summer, depicting all the
things we love about the beach.
Bruce Brown’s ‘surf love’ documentary
Endless Summer (1966) is probably the best-known ‘surf-umentary’,
setting the benchmark for the genre as we now know it. Even with the amazing
filmmaking technology now on hand the formula hasn’t, simply because it doesn’t
need to... There’s something perfect, poetic and beautifully cinematic about
following surfers to spectacular beaches all over the world in search of the
perfect wave. Brown’s son Dana made his own excellent contribution in with
Step Into Liquid (2003), a highly enjoyable doc that explores why
surfing might just be the ultimate life pursuit.
Stacey Peralta’s
Riding Giants (2004) comes a close second, including spectacular images
of tiny men riding mega-waves in the middle of the ocean.
But if you’re after a star-studded Hollywood melodrama set during summer, don’t
go past
Suddenly Last Summer (1953). Based on the Tennessee Williams play, this
psychological thriller netted two Oscars, including one for Katherine Hepburn
for Best Actress. Co-star
Elizabeth Taylor plays tormented Catherine, a young lady clearly losing
her mind, niece of wealthy society widow Violet Venable (Hepburn). Aunt Violet
will do anything to cover up a scandal, and consults with psychiatrist Dr.
Cukrowicz (Montgomery
Clift) to have Catherine silenced with treatment. The secret he
uncovers about the death of violet’s son is devastating to all involved. Hands
down a great movie, Suddenly Last Summer puts “American
Gothic” into the ‘summer movie’, a place where you might think it
doesn’t belong. Not until you see this classic anyhow
- Megan
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
