Tenet 2020
Word breaks mid-taping that it won't open August 12 after all. The three debate why Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. wouldn't just push it a year rather than tie its whole identity to reopened theaters.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Top Five
Top Five Summertime Movies
July 17, 2020/ 77 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins · Chris Ryan
With the real summer movie season canceled and Tenet in limbo, Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, and Chris Ryan invent their own, each counting down five movies that capture the feeling of summer, then somehow all agreeing on the same No. 2.
17 films across 4 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
No Tenet, no Summer of Nolanbefore the lists
Inception 2010
Its 10th anniversary landed during the shutdown; Chris admits he missed the Rewatchables tribute.
Chris Ryan's Top Five Summertime Moviesbest to worst
No. 1
Adventureland 2009
No. 1. Chris's most personal pick: Jesse Eisenberg killing a post-college summer at a Pittsburgh amusement park. He pairs it with Dazed and Confused as a coming-of-age touchstone and calls the soundtrack one of the best ever assembled.
No. 2
Do the Right Thing 1989
No. 2, and the one unanimous pick of the whole episode: all three hosts had it in the same spot.
No. 3
Die Hard with a Vengeance 1995
No. 3. Chris's all-in-one-day, all-in-one-hangover New York movie. He notes it started life as an unrelated script called Simon Says before being reworked into the Die Hard franchise, and singles out Samuel L. Jackson's chemistry with Bruce Willis.
No. 4
Bull Durham 1988
No. 4. Chris grew up with baseball as his summer's organizing principle; he calls the romance between Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner the ultimate summer romance.
No. 5
Rear Window 1954
No. 5. Chris admits it's arguably a top-30-all-time film rather than merely a top-five summer one. James Stewart's heatwave-bound voyeurism hit differently after months of quarantine nosiness about his own neighbors.
Amanda Dobbins's Top Five Summertime Moviesbest to worst
No. 1
Dirty Dancing 1987
No. 1. A Catskills resort, Jennifer Grey's Baby coming into her own, and Patrick Swayze as, in Amanda's telling, most of her sex education.
No. 2
Do the Right Thing 1989
No. 2, unanimous across all three lists. Amanda calls it the ultimate New York summer movie: you can feel the heat and the tempers rising in real time.
No. 3
Something's Gotta Give 2003
No. 3. Nancy Meyers's Hamptons beach house, with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson (and Keanu Reeves) making the case for summer romance well past your twenties.
No. 4
Call Me by Your Name 2017
No. 4. Luca Guadagnino's Italy, all lazy pool afternoons and long bike rides. It's a summer love story that ends bittersweet rather than happy.
No. 5
Now and Then 1995
No. 5. Amanda's "Stand By Me, but for girls": four women recall the childhood summer of 1970 that made them friends.
Sean Fennessey's Top Five Summertime Moviesbest to worst
No. 1
Jaws 1975
No. 1, which Sean calls "really a collective number one." Amity's need for summer dollars, he argues, is the template the summer blockbuster never left.
No. 2
Do the Right Thing 1989
No. 2, unanimous. Sean credits cinematographer Ernest Dickerson with making Brooklyn's heat visible on screen, down to the red paint on the walls.
No. 3
Summer School 1987
No. 3. Carl Reiner's Mark Harmon comedy ran on cable constantly during Sean's childhood; he calls it the stand-in for a whole genre of '80s summer comedies.
No. 4
Risky Business 1983
No. 4. Paul Brickman's Reagan-era satire, with Tom Cruise at peak charm. Sean argues it's more subtle and artful than its sunglasses-and-Bob-Seger reputation suggests.
No. 5
Big Wednesday 1978
No. 5. Sean's "pointy-headed" pick: John Milius's tribute to surfing friendship, made by the same movie-brat generation as Scorsese and Spielberg.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Bill Murray's summer résumé What About Bob?Quick ChangeCaddyshackMeatballsMoonrise KingdomGhostbusters
Amanda's honorable mentions The Talented Mr. RipleyThe NotebookThe Parent TrapA League of Their OwnThe SandlotMamma Mia!
Chris's honorable mentions Friday the 13thFriday the 13th Part 2Friday the 13th Part III
In passing Point BreakGreaseDog Day AfternoonWet Hot American SummerWeekend at Bernie'sThe Great OutdoorsOne Crazy SummerNational Lampoon's VacationGhostApollo 13FootlooseQuicksilverAnimal HouseZombielandThe Social NetworkTwilightHalloweenClose Encounters of the Third KindAmerican GraffitiRed DawnConan the BarbarianPorky'sHot Dog...The MovieVisions of Light
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