Summer as a kid was pure magic. I spent 99% of my time outside, basking in the endless sunshine of Southern California. But sometimes, the heat was too much, even for us. On those blistering days, we’d retreat indoors and dive into summer movies. When I sat down to write this blog post, I thought about my own list of summer films. Turns out, they were all cut from the same cloth – classics like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Thrashin', Rad, and Weird Science. So, I reached out to my good friend, the one and only The Clay Universe. This guy has an eye for everything – music, art, movies. I asked him to put together a list of must-watch summer films, and let me tell you, he did not disappoint.
Check out The Clay universe online as well.
https://www.instagram.com/theclayuniverse/
From The Clay Universe
"This list represents movies that have multiple messages veiled beneath layers of creative manifestations masquerading as entertainment. All of the secrets of the UNIVERSE can be found within these carefully curated moments... if you pay CLOSE attention you just may find yourself perceiving your realty differently."
Holy Mountain - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071615/
A Christlike figure wanders through bizarre, grotesque scenarios filled with religious and sacrilegious imagery. He meets a mystical guide who introduces him to seven wealthy and powerful people, each representing a planet in the Solar system. These seven, along with the protagonist, the guide and the guide's assistant, divest themselves of their worldly goods and form a group of nine who will seek the Holy Mountain, in order to displace the gods who live there and become immortal.
Director Alejandro Jodorowsky
Wild At Heart - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100935/
After serving prison time for a self-defense killing, Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) reunites with girlfriend Lula Fortune (Laura Dern). Lula's mother, Marietta (Diane Ladd), desperate to keep them apart, hires a hit man to kill Sailor. But he finds a whole new set of troubles when he and Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe), an old buddy who's also out to get Sailor, try to rob a store. When Sailor lands in jail yet again, the young lovers appear further than ever from the shared life they covet.
Director David Lynch
Donnie Darko - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246578/
During the presidential election of 1988, a teenager named Donnie Darko sleepwalks out of his house one night and sees a giant, demonic-looking rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world will end in 28 days. When Donnie returns home, he finds that a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom. Is Donnie living in a parallel universe, is he suffering from mental illness - or will the world really end?
Director Richard Kelly
The Men Who Stare at Goats - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234548/
Struggling reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) gets the scoop of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), who claims to be from a unit of psychic soldiers who have been reactivated for duty. Intrigued by Cassady's assertions that they can walk through walls and kill goats by fixed gazes, Wilton follows him on a dangerous, top-secret mission across Iraq to find the brigade's founder, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges).
Director Grant Heslov
Slaughterhouse Five - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069280/
From his home in Ilium, N.Y., optometrist Billy Pilgrim (Michael Sacks) narrates the tale of how he came to be "unstuck in time." Kidnapped by aliens and living in comfort with his assigned mate, B-movie starlet Montana Wildhack (Valerie Perrine), Billy experiences the events of his life in random order, flitting between his past as an American prisoner of war in World War II, to his humdrum middle-class life in the present-day, to his future as a zoo curiosity on the planet Tralfamadore.
Director George Roy Hill
Three Days of the Condor - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073802/
On a seemingly ordinary day, Joe Turner (Robert Redford), a quiet CIA codebreaker, walks into his workplace and finds that all of his coworkers have been murdered. Horrified, Joe flees the scene and tries to tell his supervisors about the tragedy. Unfortunately, he soon learns that CIA higher-ups were involved in the murders. With no one to trust, and a merciless hit man (Max von Sydow) close on his tail, Joe must somehow survive long enough to figure out why his own agency wants him dead.
Director Sydney Pollack
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105665/
In the folksy town of Deerfield, Wash., FBI Agent Desmond (Chris Isaak) inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the similarly cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Lara Palmer (Sheryl Lee) hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.
Director David Lynch
Naked Lunch - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102511/
Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee (Peter Weller) and his dead-eyed wife, Joan (Judy Davis), like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway (Roy Scheider), Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.
Director David Cronenberg
12 Monkeys - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114746/
Traveling back in time isn't simple, as James Cole (Bruce Willis) learns the hard way. Imprisoned in the 2030s, James is recruited for a mission that will send him back to the 1990s. Once there, he's supposed to gather information about a nascent plague that's about to exterminate the vast majority of the world's population. But, aside from the manic Jeffrey (Brad Pitt), he gets little in the way of cooperation, not least from medical gatekeepers like Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe).
Director Terry Gilliam
Metropolis - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/
This influential German science-fiction film presents a highly stylized futuristic city where a beautiful and cultured utopia exists above a bleak underworld populated by mistreated workers. When the privileged youth Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) discovers the grim scene under the city, he becomes intent on helping the workers. He befriends the rebellious teacher Maria (Brigitte Helm), but this puts him at odds with his authoritative father, leading to greater conflict.
Director Fritz Lang
