Summer Movies and Series

There is something insistent in John Carpenter's film, The Thing (1982), that tells us our worst enemy is the one sitting in front of us. With its themes of paranoia, group psychosis, and the presence of an entity whose alien cells run, undetected, through the protagonists’ veins, the film, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this summer, is the perfect metaphor in these times of COVID-19.

If you go strictly by the calendar, the June solstice on June 21 marks the first official day of summer, astronomically speaking. But July is, of course, the month most North Americans associate with summer — a glorious season of kicking back, enjoying trips or vacations, and savoring time off while unwinding and relaxing with good food, cold drinks, and old friends.

A bar that reportedly hosted Richard Nixon and Robert F. Kennedy, even gangster Mickey Cohen.

Thor: Love and Thunder, brings Golden Globe winner Christian Bale into the Marvel Universe as Gorr, the God Butcher. Anyone who is a Harry Potter fan will be a tiny bit distracted by how closely the Butcher resembles Voldemort.

Has it really been 44 years since John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, as Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson, respectively, sang You’re the One That I Want to each other in Grease? The critically and commercially successful romantic comedy, set in the summer of 1958, stole our hearts and brought out our dancing shoes. Generations have been dancing and singing – some costumed as Danny and Sandy – to such songs as Greased Lightning, Summer Nights, and Hopelessly Devoted to You.

Almost four decades after its release, Stand by Me – based on true events in Stephen King’s life – remains one of the most poignant Summer coming-of-age films. Set over a scorching Labor Day weekend in 1959, Stand by Me, Rob Reiner’s tale of four boys traipsing across a small Oregon town searching for the body of a missing boy, was based on King’s novella “The Body.

One thing is for certain: programmers at the Bologna Film Festival are equal opportunity film lovers. Cinema Ritrovato – the official name of this yearly celebration of cinema classics – is nothing if not eclectic.

On June 20, 1975, Hollywood released a movie that would not only break records for years to come but, also, for better or worse, change the way the industry would forthwith release and market their product. The movie and its director created what is now widely known as the ‘opening weekend.

Perusing through the television landscape of the summer of 2022, viewers are tuning in to new episodes to some of the mediums most cutting-edge and innovative series. Stranger Things, Hacks, Only Murders in the Building, The Umbrella Academy, Westworld and Peaky Blinders have returned to their streaming homeland while debuting shows such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Old Man, Loot, The Black Hamptons and the highly-anticipated House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones, get their chance to hook viewers into binging weekends.

Think fast: is there any film you had seen that didn’t have a car? Difficult, isn’t it? Cars and movies were born and developed at the same time, from the late 19th century to the early 20th, a moment when movement and speed fascinated new generations and opened opportunities for new horizons. The first moving picture – The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Gare, in 1895 -  showcased a protagonist from the previous century – the locomotive.