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This Memorial Day weekend, however,feels different for reasons too obvious to continue noting.
Bilge Ebiri:Whenever I hear the words summer movie season, I start to break out in hives.
So I wasnt here for the summer movie season.
(You could do that back then, because the movies stayed in theaters for a while.)
Im sure my opinions were colored by what I already knew about the movies.
So for me, almost subconsciously, summer movies meanhype.
Because for much of my life, I couldnt actually see any summer movies during the summer.
All I saw was the hype.
And sometimes (often) the disillusionment.
Thats very much the case for me.
There was a six-screen cineplex in town that featured an array of whatever the bigger offerings were each week.
When you have nothing but time, you could wander into titles you might not have picked out otherwise.
Ebiri:How did the summer movie season idea even start, though?
But over the past couple of decades, that idea seems to have changed.
But is there also still a collection of ideas aesthetic or narrative that denotes something as a summer movie?
Was the July-releasedDunkirksecretly an impostor posing as a summer movie?
The Marvel movies, on the other hand?
Ebiri:The dumb summer movie concept is an interesting one.
It was always a kick to me that Stanley Kubrick wanted to release his movies in the summer.The Shining?
A summer movie.Full Metal Jacket?
I guess this is the position Nolan finds himself in now ashe fights to keepTeneton the calendar.
I do wonder why and when summer movies became thought of as dumb movies.
But maybe thats hindsight talking.
I have no problem accepting that there were people who thoughtStar Warswas dumb.
Ebiri:Yeah, this is an important point.
Theyve given us so much!
It does make me wonder, however: Who out there is still creating actual summer movies?
(Regardless of whether theyre released in the summer or not.)
Thats a lot of dudes, of course.
We also dont only go to the movies for dudely action, as much as I enjoy it.
I mentionedGet Outbefore, butUsis even more of a summer movie it even takes place on vacation.
And whats the pandemic going to mean for all of this?
Both of which are, in their own way, perfect summer movies of the old kind.
The big release of June isDa 5 Bloods, a new Spike Lee joint.
(I refuse to believeArtemis Fowlis a real movie.)
Obviously, the reasons for this current predicament are tragic, so its not necessarily a thing to celebrate.
And I desperately want movie theaters back.
Would that be such a bad thing?
