An Overview Of The Summer’s Hottest Flicks
Whether you wanted something fun, something existential, or just wanted to see how bad The Flash was, this summer had just about anything you could ask for in theaters!
For starters, it can’t be overlooked that the biggest headliner of this summer was the dual release everyone was talking about: Oppenheimer and Barbie, which was more lovingly called Barbenheimer. While many people did seek to watch both back-to-back, it would’ve been a harrowing task having the total runtime of 4 hours and 54 minutes. Instead, it would be better to experience both separately as I did and getting to fully appreciate each movie on their own.
Barbie was of course first and actually surprised me, as I expected it to be entirely lighthearted but came with some really heartfelt moments, one of which brought tears to my eyes. It was an amazing balancing act of being both hilarious and trying to sincerely portray the message director Greta Gerwig (She/Her) wanted to get across.
Then Oppenheimer was just an absolute feast for the senses as I sat in the Dolby Cinema being just blasted with sound, to an almost shell shocking sense. With it’s captivating score done by Ludwig Göransson (He/Him), even the many moments of just people having conversations were filled a wide variety of emotion that when coupled with some of the even more intense moments had me transported into the film.
Besides these two monuments of the summer, there were many more films that people had the pleasure of enjoying, including two excellent animated films: Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Both of these films did an amazing job of capturing the well-established characters they’ve sought to portray, while also showing them off in unique art styles and scenarios they haven’t been in before. My only issue with Spider-Verse though was how I didn’t know it’d have another part to it so I was unexpectedly hit with a cliffhanger.
To round this off, I’m going to give major props to two films that I think haven’t been getting as much attention as they should’ve: Joy Ride and Bottoms. These R-rated comedies had me dying of laughter throughout, featuring both absurdist and that raunchy humor I love to get out of a summer comedy. What I really loved about Bottoms is just how it’s a film that really captures the humor of Gen-Z in it’s writing and was able to have the entire theater laughing throughout.
Overall, I’d say this summer had a large handful of new and refreshing films that range from fun to terrifying you about the nuclear bomb.
One of my earlies memories was watching stories unfold on a small TV in my room. Ever since then, I've always wanted to become a filmmaker to put stories of my own onto all manner of screens. Being a fan of writing alongside this has also led to my love of writing analysis/reviews on the things I view. It's a joy to share to others my thoughts and insights on media.
