Here in Chicago, the sweltering heat was a bit of a curve-ball. That’s the city for you, though—you always have to expect the unexpected.
As maddening as the heat can be, I’m reminded of the past. There’s something charming about taking the fans out of storage and batting your hands against your face for just a bit of relief. The stickiness of skin, the dampness of hair—all those feelings (albeit gross and uncomfortable) are signs of what’s to come: summer.
Of course, with some restrictions still in place, many of us still don’t feel comfortable seizing the day and taking the heat for what it is—going outside and feeling it tenfold, that is. And so, I’ve compiled a wildly–and I mean wildly–diverse list of films where you can feel it through the screen.
City of God (2002)
Dir. Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund
This Brazilian crime film follows the lives of two boys from the favelas of Rio De Janeiro—one wants to become a photographer, and the other is led down a vicious path to gang violence. Set on location in a real favela, the heat is not obvious—moreso it’s always there, lingering on the characters’ skin for us to see. It’s the combination of the breathtakingly high saturation and cramped nature of the slums physically pushing people together that makes it feel so muggy—it’s stifling in a way that only exemplifies the characters’ inability to escape the cycle of crime in their home.
Y tu mamá también (2001)
Dir. Alfonso Cuarón
Set over the course of the summer, two teenage boys take a roadtrip with an older woman they are looking to impress. Throughout their escapade, the trio find solace in each other in unexpected ways. They laze on their sheets with the windows open, lounge by the pool, crack open ice cold beers, and make their way to an apparently fictitious beach called Boca del Cielo (Heaven’s Mouth). It’s hot in the way that rural Mexico can be, and as the tension grows between the three, there isn’t much left to cool them down.
Hot Summer Nights (2017)
Dir. Elijah Bynum
Changing gears for the lovers of teen film, Hot Summer Nights is what I would call an easy-on-the-eyes film: it’s simply fun to look at. Hotshot Timothée Chalamet plays an awkward city teen struggling to adapt to life in a small beach town. In over his head and looking to belong, he begins slinging drugs for his business partner—whose sister he’s slowly falling for. It’s nostalgic in a way I credit to the highly stylized nature of the film—a young boy is narrating the course of events in a way that makes it seem real, like something we should remember. Like the title suggests, the beach town of Cape Cod is absolutely scorching. I would be a bit delirious like the characters too, if I lived there.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Dir. Jim Gillespie
I have no problem admitting I’m a sucker for slasher film: sure, it’s silly, but it’s entertaining. 90’s slasher films in particular hold a special place in my heart, and are a genre of their own. In this one, a group of teens are haunted by their past: after committing a crime the previous year, they are stalked by a vengeance-seeking killer who claims to have seen everything. I think the title speaks for itself, here.
August: Osage County (2013)
Dir. John Wells
Based off the play by Tracy Letts, this film follows the lives of a family–to describe them as dysfunctional would be an understatement–who come together after the death of the patriarch. The Weston sisters, in particular, bear the brunt of their mother’s venom. The title of the film tells us exactly when and where we are—it is August, an unusually hot August at that, in rural Oklahoma. The heat bears down in ways that only heighten the brutality of the family’s feelings toward each other, and as it gets hotter, hotter, hotter, all that’s left is for everything they’ve hidden to explode.
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Dir. Spike Lee
As one of Spike Lee’s most influential films, when I think of unbearable heat, this is the first that comes to mind. Unlike the other films on this list, Do The Right Thing takes place on one single, sweltering day—specifically, in a neighborhood in Brooklyn. It’s beautiful, hilarious, vibrant, frustrating, and most importantly, culturally significant. It’s a film everyone should watch at least once. If you’ve lived in a city, you know what it’s like to sit on the stoop and watch life go by: men and women sit and gossip, kids play in the water of the fire hydrant, and old friends catch up on what they’ve missed. The oppressive sun is nothing short of a catalyst to the conflict: as a heat wave bears down on the neighborhood all day, the racial tension that’s been simmering below the surface comes to a boil at night.
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