Emily's Top 5 Summer Movies. Ever.

  
Like every kid and back-to-school season, when it comes to summer movies, I have a bit of a split personality. I often embrace the traditional, coming-of-age style, bittersweet sun-filled saga and all it's tired life lessons and overdone summer-fun montages. But then I also love the twisted, darkly funny takes on everyone's favourite three-month holiday, complete with jokes only creepers and their kooky, pseudo-hipster friends could love. Cause I say when it comes to watching a great summer flick, why not take the ol' rope swing approach? Just let go and jump in.

5) Psycho Beach Party 

This movie is as ridiculous as it sounds - and then some. Starring two of the most underrated stars of the two of the best TV shows ever (Lauren Ambrose, Six Feet Under, and Nicholas Brendan, Buffy) and one of the most ridiculous actors ever (Greg from Dharma & Greg), Psycho Beach Party sets out to take the piss out of Gidget and all those other G-rated, '60s surfer gals and does so, flamingly (Yes, I said flamingly - there are just so many drag queens in this movie). With the help of a gender-confused detective, an exchange student named Lars, a super-young Amy Adams and a ridiculous murder mystery, this flick turns the beach-side genre on it's dismembered head. And I mean that in the best way.

 Photo: Allmoviephoto.com

4) Adventureland

 When I was first putting together this list, I immediately wrote down Richard Linklater's end-of-school 70s nostalgia opus, Dazed and Confused. But then I thought about it more, and I realized that while that movie rocks and rolls all night (and parties every day), it's not really a summer movie. I mean, it only takes place on the first day of summer. And when you're at the end of your summer, watching kids celebrate the beginning of their vacation is just kind of depressing. Not so upsetting - and equally awesome - is it's late '80s equivalent, last year's underrated comedy Adventureland, which  follows the underpaid college kids who work at a second-rate theme park. Said employees include SNL alums Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig (as a couple!), Martin Starr (a.k.a. Bill Haverchuck from Freaks and Geeks), Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Stewart and the boy I like to call the Michael Cera of the Jews, Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland, The Social Network).  And the soundtrack is guilty pleasure gold (Think "Rock Me Amadeus"and "Don't Dream (It's Over)"). Oh, and there are bananas wearing eye patches.

Photo: Allmoviephoto.com

3) Man in the Moon / My Girl

Way before she was Elle Woods and June Carter Cash, Reese Witherspoon made a mini-splash with her performance as 14-year-old Dani in The Man in the Moon. Not to be confused with that movie with Jim Carrey about Andy Kaufman, Man in the Moon is a sweet little flick about two sisters (Witherspoon and Emily Whitfield) who fall for the same boy over the course of one '50s summer. It's simple, but moving, like watching a sunset on a wrap-around porch in the middle of August with a glass of sweet tea. Looking for a more comedic summer drama?  Rent one of my personal faves, My Girl, which takes place a decade later and tells the story of a sassy tween tomboy who is experiencing her first brushes with life, love and death in the 'burbs. Just make sure to keep your Kleenex handy for both.

 

Photo: NY Daily News

 Photo: blog.jinni.com

2) Stand By Me

You've seen Jerry O'Connell get his dick ripped off in Piranha 3D, now watch him try to run from a moving train in his fat-boy pants (sadly, not in 3D). Aside from a pre-gym O'Connell, Stand By Me, features some of the most talented young actors of the 1980s - River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Sheldon Cooper's nemesis, Wil Wheaton. But it's not the star power that makes it special. Stand By Me sounds creepy on paper (four boys go looking for a dead body in the woods), especially after you hear that it's based on a Stephen King novel, but it's really not at all. It's really just about a few kids looking for adventure and finding themselves. If that doesn't scream summer to your inner 13-year-old boy, I don't know what will.

 Photo: Womensday.com

1) Wet Hot American Summer

Hold on, I'm just gonna go fondle my sweaters. I mean, fondue some cheddar. Er, perhaps I'm better off letting my Wet Hot American Summer-themed Don't You Forget About explain this one...

"If I had to pick movie to take on the role of director of the summer camp movie section of my heart, it would most definitely be the hot mess that is Wet Hot American Summer...To put it in sleepaway camp terms, Wet Hot American Summer is the dry comedy equivalent of a hot s'more on a Wednesday night. It doesn't seem quite right, but it so is...

The movie takes us back to 1981, where campers, counselors and activities captains are celebrating/mourning the last day of their summer at Camp Firewood. Over the course of the day, they do what every camp does before saying goodbye for the year: play capture the flag, have a talent show, almost play in a camp-to-camp softball tourney, go hiking, have an afternoon swim, make-out in the forest, go on a midday cocaine run, hold a gay wedding in the lake and fend off a renegade piece of the SKYLAB space station heading for the camp rec room using a Dungeons and Dragons die."

Need I say more?

 Photo: Allmoviephoto.com

Don't You Forget About: My Girl

Sure, it's fun to catch the latest flick at the multiplex, or grab the newest release at a video store, but sometimes you just gotta say, "Out with the new, and in with the unknown." There are plenty of older flicks out there that are worth a rental, but never registered on your radar. In Don't You Forget About, we remember the long-gone gems, so you don't have to.

Photo: impaawards.com

When I was about 8-years-old, there was only one movie that I wanted to watch over and over again. In fact, I not only wanted to watch it, I wanted to be in it. I was obsessed with the main character, and thoroughly convinced that I'd become her when I grew up a few years. I wanted her tomboy attitude. I wanted her nerdy BFF. I wanted her quirky one-of-a-kind name. I wanted her perfectly oversized pocket tees. I wanted her weird home life. And most of all, I wanted her perfectly oval dollar store mood ring. Right now I guess you're probably saying to yourself what non-Disney movie character could possibly make me feel this way? Why Vada Sultenfuss, of course. 

In case you're still confused (and let's face it, you probably are), I'm talking about the girl in My Girl. You know the movie. The semi-romantic Macaulay Culkin dramedy that was released in between Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Okay, maybe you don't. But you should. Because the 1991 family-friendly flick wasn't just about giving Mac a break from all the face-slapping shenanigans. It was, and still is, it's own little big deal. 

As the famous song says, My Girl is like sunshine on a cloudy day. It's sweet, pleasantly surprising and undeniably warm.The Temptations-inspired title refers to the aforementioned Vada (Anna Chlumsky), an 11-year old hyperactive hypochondriac who lives with her widowed dad, Harry (Dan Aykroyd) and near-death's-door grandma in a suburban funeral home. Vada is somewhat of a self-imposed loner, pining after her young teacher, Mr. Bixler, rejecting the girlie girls at school and occasionally hanging with bespectacled boy, Thomas J. (Culkin). But things start looking up when her dad hires a cool, hippie chick named Shelley (Jamie Lee Curtis), who provides her with some make-up, sneak-peaks at romance novels and some money for Mr. Bixler's creative writing course. Well, the last part isn't quite a gift. Vada steals it.

Like the mood ring Vada wears religiously, My Girl smoothly moves back and forth between emotions, playing out like a 12-year-old girls' overactive imagination on a humid August afternoon. In one sense, it's like Six Feet Under for tweens, bringing light to the most morbid of family businesses and what it does to the living. But it's also a fun and carefree summer coming-of-age story,  guaranteed to make you nostalgic for the days when bikes were your best friend, you only wanted to be home for dinner, jumping fully-clothed into a lake seemed like a great idea and boys were still kinda icky. It sounds like an odd combination in theory, but it's kind of perfect in practice. Because when you're a tweenage girl, everything seems like it's a matter of life and death.

Anna Chumsky is pitch-perfect as the vivacious and vindictive Girl in question, delivering the character's quips quick and naturally, almost like they're her own. While she undoubtedly nails the stubborn sasspot side of Miss Sultenfuss' personality, she also manages to bring a sense of vulnerability to the otherwise confident character. Her wide-eyed face as she sees her dad kiss Shelley is devastating, showing us, without a word, that although she's seemingly ready to deal with all the lost lives around her, she's still not ready to accept the death of her parents' late romance.

At another point, Vada gets her first period and has a mini-meltdown, thinking that she's "hemorrhaging." After she learns the truth about the bloody mess, she still keeps up the drama, telling Thomas Jay to not come around for "five to seven days." It seems funny - and totally is - but it' strictly serious to the little lady. Although she's got a big personality and a big mouth, Vada also has a big heart, and every time something chips away at it, she gets one step closer to the breaking point. So when something actually major happens near the end of the movie, she falls to pieces. And so will the little not-so-tough tomboy inside of you.