My summer movie watchlist

My Summer Watchlist and some movie recommendations from past summers- plus Summerween!

a sunset from last summer

Every summer I like to compile a movie watchlist that gives the energy of travel, beach, sunsets, lazy days, nostalgia, and warmth. I love a good euro-summer indie-film set at the beach with the entire film having a yellow tint to it- Even better if it’s subtitled.

After I create the list I will then add them to my calendar with about 3-4 per week until the end of August.
I do this to avoid sitting on the couch thinking “I should watch a movie” and then spend an hour searching for something and never watching anything but trailers.

Having them on my calendar makes it easy and it’s also fun to do, kind of like a movie advent calendar for summer.

Sometimes I’ll swap days if I feel like watching a different one first. It’s also fun looking back on past summers and seeing all the movies written every other day or so and remembering the best ones.

Last summer, every Friday was for the new The Summer I Turned Pretty episode and then I watched a movie on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays. Can you tell I’m a Virgo yet? :)

Movie List - Summer 2024

So I’ve been watching trailers and creating my list of potential movies before adding them to my calendar. For the sake of my own convenience I’m linking to nearly everything on Amazon (I’m not an affiliate) to save time. I did see several on AppleTV and Netflix. You can also find older ones on Youtube for free.
Here are some movies I’ve added so far:

• Mamma Mia 1 & 2 - Set in Greece. I’m probably the last person to watch these.

• Midnight in Paris - Set in Paris and it follows Gil who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his fiancee as he travels back in time each night at midnight when he goes to a specific street.

• The Love Punch - Set in the French Riviera with Emma Thompson and Pierce Brosnan. It’s a romantic comedy about an estranged couple who had their pension stolen by a crooked businessman and must unite to get it back.

• Summer Camp - Follows 3 childhood best friends who used to spend every summer together at camp. After many years they have a camp reunion. This is in theaters now. I don’t know if I’ll go or wait until it streams. Cast- Diane Keaton, Kathy Bates, and Betsy Sodaro.

• Let The Sunshine In - Juliette Binoche and Gerard Depardieu star in this charming romantic comedy about a woman looking for love in all the wrong places.

• Things To Come - After her husband leaves her, Nathalie sets out to rediscover herself. I believe this is set in Paris but she travels elsewhere. I love movies where older women reinvent their lives.

• Nina in Rome - Nina accepts a dog-sitting job in Rome for the summer and meets Fabrizio, a young cello player.

• Blow-ins - A documentary set in Dingle, Ireland about the people living there and the “Blow-ins”- the people who blow in from other places and stay. Lol. It looked cute for some reason plus I love the Irish landscape.

• Sliding Doors - I watched this when it came out in 1998 and I think about it from time to time. It’s about a woman who leaves work one day and she makes her train. Then it starts over and she leaves work and misses her train. Then the movie shows her life from the two perspectives of making or missing her train and each is so different. It makes you think about the little choices you make and things that happen to you that change the trajectory of your life.

• Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight - A french grad student, Celine, meets an American man on a train and they get to know each other. This is a trilogy and I watched Before Midnight a few years ago without realizing there were 2 movies before that one. So I want to start with the first and rewatch. Mostly set in Paris.

• La Vie en Rose - About the life of Edith Piaf, the famed French singer.

• The Great Beauty - About an older man in Rome who is confronted with his past and his lavish lifestyle. This was on my watchlist last summer but I kept putting it off so I’m adding it to this one. Whether I get to it this year, I’m not sure.

• Sweet Pecan Summer - Yes, this is a Hallmark film. Ha. I have to stick them in sometimes for palate cleansers. Amanda has to work with her ex boyfriend to sell her aunt’s pecan farm.

• The Kings of Summer - Three teenage boys decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land.

• Midsommar - A couple travel to Sweden to a friend’s house for the summer festival but the nice trip “quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.” Looks weird in an intriguing way.

• Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer - I’m hoping to watch this with my kids or at least one of them but I’m also not opposed to watching alone because it looks cute. Judy is setting out to have her best summer ever.

• Saint Frances - Bridget, 30, is having troubles with her life so she decides to change course and take a nanny job for the summer. Filmed in Illinois.

Summerween Movies

Have you heard of Summerween? It’s a fake summer holiday for everyone who loves Halloween and starts longing for the crisp autumn spooky days in the heat of summer.
It began in the fictional town of Gravity Falls (a Disney cartoon), in Oregon and the townspeople love Halloween so much they celebrate it in the summer too. It’s celebrated June 22nd or the second to last Friday in June.

Since I love a good season crossover, I’ve created a little list of “Summerween” flicks to add toward the end of my June calendar.

• Bell Book and Candle - a fun classic! Can also be found free on youtube.

• Teen Witch - I never see this movie talked about but it’s one of my favorites from my childhood. I remember watching it with friends at a Halloween sleepover and it’s remained in my head since. Especially the line from her little brother when he comes in her room with a fake accent and says “I took the liberty of ironing your homework.” I think everyone in my life has heard me spout that off at some point. Lol. (No it doesn’t make sense to me either).

• Halloweentown - Marnie and her siblings follow grandma to Halloweentown to discover they come from a family of witches.

• Practical Magic - If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s also a classic. I want that house!

• The Love Witch - She lives in a gothic Victorian apartment. She creates spells to seduce men into falling for her. They work too well and there’s a string of victims. This has a horror classification on it but also charming so…

• The Craft - Another classic from the 90’s and it goes with my 90’s summer theme. It’s about a group of high school outcast witches using magic to avenge those who’ve done them wrong.

• A Tale of Autumn - A French film that seems to combine my love of European Summer films and Autumn. It seems like it’s just set in Autumn but it’s about a widow and vineyard owner who is peer pressured by a friend to place a personal ad and chaos ensues. Set in the vineyards of Rhone, sign me up.

Some movies I enjoyed from previous summers

• Murina - Set on the Croation coast. Julija wants to leave her home and escape her overbearing father. Lots of swimming, sun, and family drama.

• A Chance Encounter - Cute movie about 2 Americans crossing paths in Sicily. One is a poet, the other a singer, and they decide to spend their time together. In real life, the singer Andrea von Kampen is so good and she’s on a couple of my spotify playlists.

• The Tree - This tells the story of an 88 year old woman who misses her childhood friend and the tree they would climb as kids. She lives alone in Kansas (her husband recently passed) and decides to take a solo road trip home to Indiana to visit the tree. The movie is her on this road trip where she meets people, her old car has issues, she gets pulled over for driving slow, etc. It’s just so sweet and endearing. It’s also based on a true story.

• Book Club: Next Chapter - As fun as the first Book Club movie. The ladies take a trip to Italy for a bachelorette party for one of them as an excuse to go to Italy and they get up to trouble in various ways. I don’t want to give spoilers but it was a lighthearted good time and I love Diane Keaton and Candice Bergen.

• A Taste of Tuscany - Cute Hallmark-ish movie. April decides to reinvent herself and go to Italy to learn how to cook the cuisine when she meets a chef who she cooks and spends time with.

• Priceless - Set on the French Riviera with Audrey Tautou. Audrey’s character, Irene, is out searching for an old rich man to marry her and buy her things. She runs into Jean (not old) who she thinks is a patron at the hotel she’s staying in but he’s really the bartender. He falls for her and ends up spending all of his money to buy her stuff (she also stole his credit card to buy clothes). But then, of course, she finds out he’s a bartender so she dumps him. He then gets taken under the wing of a rich widow and ends up in Irene’s situation of getting gifts and being a companion to this person. I don’t want to spoil the rest but it was fun.

• This Beautiful Fantastic - Set in London. It’s about a young woman who neglects her garden and faces eviction and her grouchy old neighbor who is a horticulturist. They are at odds but eventually become friends. It was better than I make it sound.

• A Good Year - A busy Englishman inherits a vineyard in Provence and goes there to find a woman who claims its hers. Loved the setting.

• At Eternity’s Gate - A film about Vincent Van Gogh. This movie takes you on a journey with him from his time leaving Paris to go paint in Arles. He was really a troubled man and it was thoughtfully portrayed.
  

Do you have any good summer movie recommendations for me? I’m still working on this list before I start adding them into my calendar. I believe the new season of The Summer I Turned Pretty comes out in August this year so that will likely be added to my August fridays.

I’ve never been a big movie person. It’s something I have to work at doing. It’s more natural for me to pick up a book or just listen to music. These watchlists have been a fun addition to my summer downtime.

Let me know if you have any recommendations! I’ll give updates over the summer on the best ones when I watch them.

x,
Courtney

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