As most of the summer is going by with most of us still locked indoors, I have been getting my fill of the summer aesthetic by watching films that feel like summer. So here is a list of sunny, happy, and relaxed movies with summertime vibes that I hope you guys will enjoy as well.
1. Lilo & Stitch
This is my favourite Disney film and how much more summer can you get than Hawaii. Released in 2002, Lilo & Stitch is a very heartfelt yet light-hearted story about what it means to be a family.
The movie has an amazing soundtrack that compliments the amazing cinematography. The movie starts with a song in Hawai’ian language – He Mele No Lilo – which introduces the setting and the main character of the story. Another catchy song is the Hawai’ian Roller Coaster Ride which plays along with a surfing montage during the second half of the movie. The Elvis tracks also add a lot of charm to this movie.
Drawn in watercolour, the movie excels in visual storytelling. However, that does not take anything away from the emotionally investing story.
2. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
I have conflicting feelings about Lasse Hallström as a director. I mean there are a few of his movies, including this one that I go back to time and again – I find them very very comforting. But scattered amidst those I enjoy are these other movies which I honestly feel deserve the really bad scores that they got in Rotten Tomatoes. There is no stylistic coherence with this dude, I am seriously baffled.
But let’s leave him for now and get back to this movie. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is set in a rural Iowa and tells the story of a dysfunctional family and the bonds between them. The movie has its quirky charm and has moments that would make you think of it as a slice of life movie.
The film’s cinematographer Sven Nykvist showcases breathtaking shots of the Midwestern sunset and sets the premise for the story in a dusty and sweltering summer. This film has a glowing late-summer evening feel to it.
The cinematography aids the story and the theme of the movie so perfectly. You kind of feel that right from the opening scene where Gilbert, the main character states, “describing Endora is like dancing to no music. It’s a town where nothing much ever happens, and nothing much ever will.” Nykvist had already put this sentiment in our mind by giving us a visual estimate of the place.
But changes do take place as the plot moves forward and as the characters go through their own tragedies and triumphs, this slow-paced movie makes us look back at our own lives as well.
3. Moonrise Kingdom
Set on the imaginary island of New Penzance during the summer of 1965, the Moonrise Kingdom is about two twelve-year-old social outcasts that find each other and escape their regimented lives by running away into the woods to explore their love.
Critics have described the Moonrise Kingdom as being filled with nostalgia for a summer that never occurred. This movie showcases the magic of the childhood summers that we all had, that somehow fades away as we grow older.
Summer used to be about complete freedom and endless possibilities when we were young and this film does such a fantastic job of capturing that feeling. This movie does not take the plight and problems of the younger characters lightly and gives them space and sensitivity that is rarely seen in movies, especially one as seemingly light-hearted as this one.
4. Letter to Momo
The fourth movie in this list is A Letter to Momo – a 2011 Japenese anime that tells the story of 11-year-old Momo Miyaura. Following the death of her father, Momo moves to a small and quaint island town with her mother.
On the island, Momo encounters three goblins that only she can see. The goblins are trying to help her cope with the loss of her father. The movie follows the four characters across the beautiful backdrop of the island town. As the movie goes on, we see Momo learn to love her new home and adapt to her current situation.
The backdrop of the beautiful coastal Japanese town brings the anime to life as much as the plot itself. The hand-drawn animation of the movie is visually striking and certainly a treat for anime fans.
5 Porco Rosso
The fifth film in this list is a Miyazaki anime from 1992. Porco Rosso is an anti-war movie based in the Adriatic Sea in the summer of 1920s.
The synopsis of the movie showcased in the beginning states that the movie is “set over the Mediterranean Sea in an age when seaplanes ruled the waves.” The movie then starts on a beach lagoon where we meet Porco listening to Italian music and relaxing with a magazine. Porco is so traumatized by the war, rejects humanity by cursing himself to turn into a pig. And now he lives on this beautiful island away from humanity.
The movie is set in the hand-painted background of the Mediterranean in its glory days. The story is finely balanced between reality and fiction with the setting between the two great wars juxtaposed with the magical curse that turned him into a pig.
