A summer survival guide

Film purists will tell you that the optimal movie watching experience is on the biggest screen imaginable with the newest Dolby audio design, comfiest chairs and in complete silence. These people are wrong. It's sort of like asking audiophiles on what the best way to listen to music is; they'd tell you about their incredibly expensive setup with their best-in-class noise cancelling headphones and lossless file format, but for most people the best music listening experience would be popping up a vinyl on a $200 record player, some cozy lighting and a drink.

For me, the summer season is the perfect time to watch movies no matter how suboptimal it may be. Open air theatres start popping up everywhere (in Athens, at least)/, and if you can ignore the mosquitos, humidity and mild discomfort, it enhances the movie watching experience tenfold. Hell, even watching a movie in an air-conditioned room at home while the sun is burning at a blistering 40 degrees, beer in hand and snacks all over the couch, sounds like a dream right now. I might be contradicting my 22 year-old self who thought that watching a movie should be like work, but my 22 year-old self was a dumbass. My 29 year old self is still a dumbass, but at least he knows that it's not that deep, watching movies should be fun and I couldn't care less if someone wants to watch "Lost Highway" on their 5" cracked iPhone 10 screen. That being said, I have some specific recommendations for movies and series that are perfect for this summer season, whether you're watching at home or at a fancy open air cinema overlooking the Acropolis.

Do the right thing

This is basically what prompted me to make this list, I've never seen a movie so accurately display the summer heat before this one, and it's a really fun one before shit hits the fan. Amazing depiction of how quick things can escalate and a very important movie showcasing the division even between minorities, and it will stick with you like a sweat-soaked t-shirt long after you've finished watching it.

Before Trilogy

I don't know if it's cheating to put a trilogy in here but I'm making the rules up as I go so it doesn't really matter. Spoilers: it won't be Linklaters only appearance on the list, the dude basically creates movies made to be seen in a cozy afternoon with a bottle of wine and a date, if applicable. There's not much more to say about these movies that hasn't been said before, it's my favourite depiction of a fairytale relationship with a turn to realism in the 3rd part, which is as beautiful as it is brutal.

I'm gonna go ahead and plagiarize myself from a previous review I did: The first movie is that one-in-a-million romance that ends in a what could have been, the kind of story that could have been a cliche if not for the natural performances of Delpy and Hawke, who I was devasted to learn weren't a couple. Hawke did give us Maya Hawke with now ex-wife Uma Thurman however, so I'll give him a pass. It's a great movie on its own, but it's elevated by being part of this trilogy.

Before Sunset is basically one in a million times two, which I guess would have made it one in two million? Basically the where the "what could have been" is resolved in the most romantic, least cheesy way, with a "baby, you're gonna miss that plane" and a content Hawke charming it up with a cool "I know", one of my favourite final scenes in movies, ever. 

Before midnight is the epilogue that gives us a reality check that we most desperately need, it's the movie equivalent of getting hit in the nuts with a bat. It gives us the depressing reality of a crumbling relationship that makes you understand that even fairytale romances will suffer from time's unavoidable touch. And we love it for that.

Dazed and Confused/Everybody Wants Some!!

As I said, more Linklater on the way. These two are meant to be watched back-to-back, as the original and spiritual successor which hit the same notes but for different parts of your life. Better enjoyed with a group of friends who don't mind watching people just going about their day, snappy dialogue and 70's/80's nostalgia included. The first one depicts the last day of highschool in a typical suburban town and the second one the last few days before the semester starts for a few freshmen who just joined their collage baseball team.

Dazed and Confused features a stacked by today's standards cast in roles you wouldn't expect them in, and Matthew McConaughey in one of his coolest roles, delivering some of the most iconic (albeit a bit creepy) lines in history. It's about the dread and excitement of growing up, it's about friendship, it's about having fun, it's about life, really.

On the other hand, Everybody Wants Some follows a whole different set of dudes who all want to party, drink beer and get laid in typical frat boy fashion. But reading between the lines of some teammates trying to compete with each other and one-up each other in every way possible, you can see a bunch of guys who have no idea what to do in their life and are just excited about what is yet to come. In between the partying and drinking and dancing, there's also using these formative years as a means to discover who you are, who you want to be and what you want to make of yourself. But, y'know, there's gotta be partying as well. Also Glen Powell is in this and he's fucking hilarious, if you needed more convincing.

Sharp Objects

This list was supposed to be about movies, but I couldn't let this one out. This mini-series is sweaty, dark, brutal and not at all like the movies I mentioned above. It won't make you feel good, it will make you gasp and cry and you might need to collect your jaw from the floor after it ends. It's based on a fantastic book by the brilliant Gillian Flynn, and it's a study of generational trauma and the cycle of abuse, disguised as a crime story about a fucked up journalist trying to uncover a series of murders in a small suburban town.

You can watch it in a couple of days and I couldn't think of a better way other than doing so in a breezy July afternoon. It's not an easy watch whatsoever, but it's a beautiful series with a fantastic soundtrack and it will make perfect sense why I included it in this list once you see it. Don't skip on the post-credits scene in the last episode because it's probably one of the most important scenes in the series.

    

Stray

Since we're already off the rails in this list I figured I'll include a video game as well. Well this is no ordinary video game, this is set in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk-ish underground city which is inhabited by mostly benevolent robots. You go around solving puzzles, helping the robots and trying to find your way back home while creating all sorts of mayhem on the way. Oh and you play as a cat, and it's as cute as you would think. 

The Nice Guys

OK we're back to movies, I saw this on the actual open air movie cinema overlooking the Acropolis when it came out, and it's still one of my most memorable movie-going experiences ever. I think of this as the yin to "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"s yang, this is as much a perfect summer movie as the other is a Christmas movie. Ryan Gosling and Russel Crowe in a film-noir/black comedy written and directed by Shane Black? Come on.

In the mood for love

Enough of the breezy, funny, easy to watch romps I mentioned before. If you want to watch one of the sexiest and yet most tragically romantic movies ever made, this is for you. The colours are immaculate, the performances are amazing and it features some of the most most subtle editing choices with shots that linger just enough to break your hea

rt just a little bit more by the second. Also a movie that makes smoking look so fucking cool. And since we're talking about smoking...

Cheap Smokes

If these things apply to you:

• Spent a lot of summers in Athens by yourself
• Enjoys a bit of pretentiousness in their movies
• Doesn't mind Haralambidis being a cheap Woody Allen knock-off
• Thinks smoking is cool

Then this is the movie for you.

For better or worse all of the above apply to me so I love this movie, and I'm not ashamed to say so. It's a movie made in the 00's that looks like it was made in the 90's, and it's so unabashedly campy that it becomes kind of endearing.

Y tu mama tambien

I talked about how In the mood for love is the sexiest movie ever, but this could be a close second. It's got two best friends on a road trip with an older woman, exploring their sexuality and fighting over her affections, it's grounded and human and very much focuses more on the characters and their relationships rather than the plot. 

The kings of summer/The way way back/The edge of Seventeen/Perks of being a Wallflower/Me and Earl & the dying girl/Looking for Alaska

Here's a lightning round of what I would call "melodramatic, bittersweet, coming-of-age" films, they all deal with similar themes but in their own unique way. Some of these lean into comedy, some of these into drama, all of them explore the dynamics of growing up and figuring stuff about yourself. Wouldn't recommend watching them all together, but they can be staggered in between some of the other ones if you're not "In the mood for love" but rather in the mood for some teenage angst. I snuck in Looking for Alaska as the only other series in the list because it fits the bill perfectly, and because I think it's just better than John Green's other young-adult adaptation in "The fault in their stars".

Stand by me

I was gonna lump this one with all the other ones above, but I think it was just a click above the rest. If you had those childhood friends who you used to hang out with in the summers but fell out of touch for one reason or another, this will hit the right spots. If not, it will still tug at your heartstrings all the same. You will see why River Phoenix is one of the biggest "what ifs", he could have had an incredible career if not dying so young. The sense of comradery between the kids with a very simple story that focuses on the journey rather than the destination, and a classic for a reason. The final line is a gut punch of the highest order, bittersweet and raw and emotional in all the right ways.

There's still a bunch of stuff I could have mentioned here but just to spice things up, here's an extra list of albums that would be perfect to play in the summer.

• Nas - Illmatic
• A tribe called quest - The low end theory
• Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
• AIR - Moon Safari
• Anathema - A natural disaster
• Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
• Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
• Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
• Kendrick Lamar - Good kid MAAD city
• Childish Gambino - Awaken, my love
• Mac Miller - Swimming
• Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
• King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Laminated denim