When we think of summer movies or summer blockbusters, a select few titles immediately come to mind: “Jaws,” “Independence Day,” “Star Wars” and “Jurassic Park” are at the top of most lists. Alas, it wouldn’t make much sense for us to break down those films or describe to you what they’re about, because let’s be honest, everyone’s seen them multiple times, and there are podcasts, essays and books dedicated to examining them from every angle.
There are, however, some hidden gems set in or released during the summer dealing with the season’s common themes of escapism, beating the heat and learning life lessons through baseball, a camp, a tough job or whatever other pastime may present itself. Oh, or saving the world, if it happens to be the task at hand.
After reviewing new releases the last couple of weeks, Bridget and Rob have opted to go with a column that’s a little more in the spirit of the Dog Days. Our recommendations for the best underseen summer gems are listed below, and as always, we’d love to hear our readers make some suggestions of their own. Let’s get down to it.
Bridget’s picks
Beer League (2006)- If you’re from the Midwest, you’re probably familiar with the concept of beer league softball. Such a league usually involves various fun-loving folks playing the slow pitch sport, you guessed it, fueled by large quantities of beer. This movie, written by and starring Artie Lange (most famous from “Mad TV” and “The Howard Stern Show”), chronicles such a league as Artie’s team representing Ed's Bar and Swill strives for the championship and the right to remain in the league after some past shenanigans. The movie is filled with mostly no-name actors, though Artie’s best friend is played by the Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio.
“Beer League” is badder and boozier than your average summer movie perhaps, but a lot of fun. It does have a hard R-rating, but if you’re familiar with the comedy or personal life of the movie’s creator, that will come as no surprise.
I think I have a soft spot for the film due to the fact my friends and I followed around my brothers’ beer league softball team back in the day since my friend was dating a player. We made tie-dyed shirts with team colors and thoroughly enjoyed the beery good times with the guys as they mostly lost games by large margins. Luckily, there weren’t many shenanigans on the level of those performed by Artie’s team in the movie.
When it came out, this movie was a big old box office failure and got pretty negative reviews. But if you’re looking for a way to kill a rainy summer day or recover after a crazy night, “Beer League” is a quick 86-minute watch and a good time if you’re a fan of raunchy comedy.
The Shallows (2016)- If this column was about the best summer movies ever no matter how widely known they are, like we said above, one of us would obviously recommend “Jaws.” But since you’ve probably already seen it, how about a lesser-known movie also about a pesky Great White Shark who eats some folks and becomes a bit of a problem?! I fully admit that “The Shallows” is no cinematic classic like “Jaws,” but it is a bit of summer fun.
The movie was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and stars Blake Lively as the main character Nancy. After Nancy’s mom dies from cancer, she travels to a secluded beach in Mexico to surf, the same beach her mother visited while she was pregnant with her. Nancy is dropped off at the hidden location where there are few other people. (Sounds a bit like last week’s movie column topic “Old.”) She has some great runs on her surfboard before things start to go wrong. Before too long, a tell-tale fin is stalking the beach. After a few other surfers become lunch, Nancy finds herself all alone on a rock that is quickly disappearing with the tide, facing a life-threatening decision of whether or not to swim for safety.
Like many shark movies, this one gets to be pretty over the top as the demonic animal makes it a mission to eat our protagonist. Still, “The Shallows” is a fun horror/survivalist movie. I also like the minimalist nature of it. Lively is essentially one of only a couple characters and most of the movie takes place in a confined location…on a rock. Backstory has it that Lively was prodded into making this movie after her husband Ryan Reynolds made a similarly minimalist movie “Buried,” which I mentioned for our Hitchcock column. “The Shallows” might be the lesser movie but if you’ve already seen “Jaws” fifty times and want to see a shark try something new, it’s a good quick watch at less than 90 minutes.
Adventureland (2009)- Once upon a time, at a theme park in Iowa… actually this movie is not about THAT theme park. The title of the movie is purely coincidental. This story was written and directed by Greg Mottola and follows main character James (Jesse Eisenberg) as his summer plans take a left turn. Just out of college, he had hoped to trek around Europe with some friends before starting graduate school. When his parents inform him that financial problems will prevent them from paying the way, James faces reality that he will have to find some sort of summer job. With his minimal skills, the only place that will employ him is Adventureland, a nearby theme park (this one located in Pennsylvania).
This movie can best be described as a coming-of-age comedy. Though the theme park proves to be a rundown nightmare, the movie is a darn good time. The supporting cast is great. Kristen Stewart stars as James’s budding love interest Em. As annoying as I found her after the “Twilight” series, I liked her sarcastic presence in this movie. Martin Starr (from various Judd Apatow projects, including “Freaks and Geeks,”) is also great and Ryan Reynolds is perfectly cast as the park’s smarmy handyman. And though they’re not on screen too much, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, who play Adventureland’s cheapo owners, are comedy gold… particularly in the scene where they are deciding if a shipment of unrefrigerated corn dogs are still ok to serve.
Perhaps it’s because this movie hit me at the perfect time….during a slow summer while I was in grad school, but my friends and I loved “Adventureland.” Eisenberg’s low-key, sardonic acting just works here. There are some big laughs in the movie, along with a few more introspective parts. I would highly recommend you give this one a look, maybe as you’re recovering at home from your sunburn acquired at the Iowa version of Adventureland.
Rob’s picks
The Fan (1996)- Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Robert De Niro portrays a miserable loner who gradually descends into a life of psychosis and violent crime as the world around him unravels at the seams.
The homages to Martin Scorsese– in particular, works like “Taxi Driver,” “The King of Comedy” and his remake of “Cape Fear– are everywhere in Tony Scott’s “The Fan,” right down to the heavy use of the Rolling Stones on the soundtrack. As the title would suggest, De Niro’s Gil Rayburn is obsessed with the San Francisco Giants, and his favorite player, Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes), a hometown hero, has returned to the Bay Area after winning an MVP award in Atlanta.
Renard, however, is anything but a stand-up guy. He’s just been fired from his job as a knife salesman after threatening a customer, and his ex-wife files for a restraining order against him after he leaves his son alone at a Giants game. He’s also constantly calling the host of a local sports radio show (played by Ellen Barkin) to posit his theories on what’s ailing the franchise. It only gets darker from there as he goes to extreme lengths to help Rayburn break a slump and reclaim his mantle from young hotshot Primo (Benicio Del Toro) as the team’s star player.
Scott, who died in 2012, will always be best remembered for his massive ‘80s hit “Top Gun” and his collaborations with Denzel Washington. Most critics see “The Fan,” which, despite its star power, was a huge box office bomb upon release, as one of the weakest efforts in a mixed bag of a career. His directorial eye and machine gun editing style were one of a kind, however, and all of the skills that made him one of the greatest visual filmmakers of all time are on full display here.
Contact (1997)- Released just over a year after the cultural juggernaut that was “Independence Day,” Robert Zemeckis’s adaptation of Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel was billed as something of a thinking man’s version of that film, exploring weighty concepts of science vs. religion and presenting a more nuanced version of an extraterrestrial society.
Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t nearly as successful, grossing just $170 million on a $90 million budget (by contrast, “Independence Day” made over $817 million), and garnering primarily mixed reviews, although Roger Ebert was a major proponent. Jodie Foster, arguably the greatest American actress of the last 30 years, stars as Dr. Ellie Arroway, an obsessive extraterrestrial researcher in the mold of Fox Mulder from “The X-Files” who hopes to reconnect with her deceased father.
Matthew McConaughey plays Palmer Joss, a Christian writer who had a brief fling with Arroway in Puerto Rico and comes back into her life as she’s pushing the government to finance an expensive machine designed to decode thousands of pages of alien transmissions. The all-star cast also includes David Morse, Tom Skerritt, Angela Bassett, James Woods, William Fichtner, Jake Busey and Rob Lowe, and the film’s humanist message is as resonant today as it’s ever been.
Zemeckis had already reached the top of the Hollywood mountain with the financial success of the “Back to the Future” series and an Oscar win for “Forrest Gump,” but “Contact” is probably my personal favorite of his films along with “Flight.” If you haven’t seen it, it’s absolutely worth seeking out.
The Straight Story (1999)- Discussions about films made or set in Iowa tend to begin and end with “Field of Dreams” and “The Bridges of Madison County,” but allow me to argue that the cream of the crop is actually David Lynch’s understated, based on a true story 1999 road drama starring Richard Farnsworth (in his final performance), Sissy Spacek and Harry Dean Stanton.
The set-up is simple: Alvin Straight (Farnsworth), a simple man living in Laurens, Iowa (about 30 miles from where I grew up), gets word that his estranged brother in Wisconsin (Stanton) has suffered a stroke. He doesn’t have a driver’s license and knows he won’t be able to get one, so he comes up with a plan to drive across Iowa on a riding lawnmower in hopes of eventually reaching Mount Zion, Wisconsin.
What follows is an achingly beautiful portrait of a stretch of land that isn’t often described as such, an emotional and heartfelt journey scored with evocative musical arrangements and an ending that’s on par with “The Searchers” as one of the greatest reunions in film history. And yes, Straight does happen to encounter RAGBRAI riders along the way, so it is most definitely set in the summer.
Although it’s now available to stream on Disney Plus, “The Straight Story” grossed just $6.2 million against a $10 million budget, so it’s definitely underseen. The fact that Lynch, famous for his groundbreaking TV show “Twin Peaks” and movies drenched in a similar surrealist horror aesthetic, made a G-rated Walt Disney production is a little hard to believe, but great artists can work outside of their wheelhouse and still make something memorable.
Stay tuned for the latest edition of the column next week, and as always, send your feedback and/or topic suggestions to Bridget (news@wrightcountymonitor.com) or Rob (publisher@grundyregister.com). Thanks for reading!
