Alo Party Peoples.So, summer movie season has already come and gone. Sure, there's that Fantastic Four reboot, but after that we're seemingly skipping the annual dead zone for a slow transition into prestige season. I thought it would be a good idea to look at this summer movie season and count down the best, because this is the Internet and that's how we mark the beginning and end of things. To make it a bit more interesting, let's stick to stuff that fits the traditional summer movie paradigm. Andrew Niccol's Good Kill came out this summer, and it's better than most of the movies on this list, but it isn't really a summer movie, it's an awards season movie that we got early. Anyways, let's go, starting with...
#5) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Directed by Alfonso Gomes-Rejon, Written by Jesse Andrews
Pretentious? Maybe. Laser focused on hitting the heart strings of wannabe auteur hipsters? Definitely. Still a sweet little movie despite all of that? Absolutely. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a moving portrait of Millennial disillusionment with the reality of the 21st Century so far, yet it manages to avoid being relentlessly depressing by also being a funny, sweet little movie at the same time.
#4) Ant-Man
Directed by Peyton Reed, Written by Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Adam McKay, and Paul Rudd
After an astonishing tale of behind the scenes skulduggery, Marvel Studios, the current king of big flashy blockbusters, had the guts to make the scope smaller, and make the stakes more personal. In a summer packed to the gills with CGI destruction porn, and especially after Age of Ultron's bloated climax, Ant-Man is a refreshingly intimate summer action film that harkens back to the best of pre-Franchise Age blockbuster film making, much like last year's late-summer Marvel offering Guardians of the Galaxy.
#3) Vacation
Directed and Written by John Francis Daley and Johnathan M. Goldstein
Rather than take the easy route and just make another low brow, lowest common denominator summer comedy, the makers of Vacation decided to take some sage advice from the Jump Street movies and the result is not only one of the funniest movies in recent memory, it's also one of the smartest. Vacation is so much fun, once you see it, you'll whistle zip-a-dee-do-da out your ass.
#2) Inside Out
Directed by Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen, Written by Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen, Meg LeFauve, and Josh Cooley
Not only has Pixar recaptured their former glory, I'd argue that they've surpassed it. Inside Out isn't just a phenomenal family film, and it isn't just better at showing how people deal with complex emotions than most grown-up movies are, but unlike most films dealing with depression, it realizes that emotions other than sadness exist, and it hits them and it hits them hard.Welcome back, Pixar, it's great to see you shooting for the stars again.
#1) Mad Max: Fury Road
Directed by George Miller, Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nick Lathouris
I know I was late to the party on this one, but you can and should believe the hype. This is probably the only time that a decades later revival of an 80s' genre franchise is not only good, it's probably the best in the series. Fury Road is a thrilling, expertly crafted, bone-cruncher of an action flick the likes of which you almost never see anymore, and it's a bitingly smart work of dystopic science fiction that leaves The Hunger Games' sundry progeny behind in the dust... while it rides off into the sunset shredding a flaming electric guitar and shouting "Witness me!"
That was fun, and before anyone asks, I'm going to leave the worst of the summer for the end of year lists.
Have a nice day.
Greg.B
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