Those heat waves keep on coming, even though autumn should be on its merry way soon. In the meantime, hop on down to your small screen to view some films that you can’t think about without associating them with some pretty intense heat (no, Heat doesn’t feature on this list).
Sexy Beast
The genius that is Jonathan Glazer knows no bounds. He can make a masterpiece about a monosyllabic alien that represents Scarlett Johannson’s finest performance. Most of the men she picks up during the film didn’t even recognise that it was Scar Jo; Glazer filmed several random dudes, who presumably agreed to star in the film after signing a contract. He also made the outstanding Zone of Interest, which had a similarly haunting and decidedly unsettling aura thanks to another zany soundtrack from Mica Levi that highlights the horrors of what the camera never allows us to see. On top of that, Glazer directed numerous successful adverts and music videos, but we’ll focus on the films at the moment.
Sexy Beast, by contrast, seems like an entirely different joint. The central character, played by Ray Winstone on top form, is decidedly more verbose, or, at least, more vocal than your typical Glazer central character. The opening scene just screams summer. That first image is literally the sun in blazing hot daylight. And while I acknowledge that the word ‘literally’ is thrown around way too much in the general verbal lexicon, it’s justified here. As Winstone’s Gal enthusiastically proclaims: ‘Bloody hell. I’m sweating here. Roastin’. Boiling. Baking. Sweltering’. You and me both, Gal.
And he points out the fact that that it’s so hot you could fry an egg on his belly. Food for thought? Maybe not. Nonetheless, the whole scene oozes cool. Perhaps not so cool when the boulder randomly crashes down, but still. It’s all good. Until Ben Kingsley arrives, anyway. Then the sun starts to become more of a metaphor for rising tension and unease, which is nifty. A bit of pathetic fallacy right there in visual form. A darn good film, and the fact that it was Glazer’s debut only makes this joint more impressive. Soak it in.
Falling Down
On the subject of heat being a character, it’s always worth taking a visit to the ultimate 90s ‘Literally Me’ film. As for what a Literally Me film is, it’s essentially that man against the machine model where a man (a ‘macho’ man displaying distinctly ‘masculine’ values, to be sure) has a breakdown and rebels against societal norms, usually in a particularly violent fashion. Recognisable examples include American Psycho, Fight Club, Taxi Driver and, more recently in the Ryan Gosling canon, Drive and Blade Runner 2049. Films where problems are solved through minimal dialogue and lots of aggression. A little less conversation and a little more shooting you in the face, as Elvis didn’t say.
Another key facet of this kind of joint tends to centre around the fact that a lot of male audiences misinterpret these characters as inspiring role models. Like in Falling Down, where some people thought those violent actions of William Foster were admirable, and lead actor Michael Douglas’ father Kirk went on record to praise the film as his son’s final work, while simultaneously asserting that film never condones the character’s violent behaviour. But anyway, onto the heat/summer aspect of the film. The whole set-up for the breakdown of Douglas’ raged-filled, unemployed man begins within his sweaty, claustrophobic car in scorching LA traffic. As if things couldn’t get any worse, the air conditioning breaks.
As British audiences are starting to sympathise with in these hot days, that kind of situation could drive anyone crazy. Perhaps not to the extent that you start attacking folks with a bat, shooting in a fast-food restaurant when you’re told that you’ve missed the breakfast menu (RIP 9 hash browns; if you understand that most niche of niche references, I appreciate you) or shooting up a phone booth when you’re getting impatient. I get impatient sometimes too. What do I do? Internalise those thoughts and fail to vocalise them properly when people ask how I’m feeling. Yeah. Not the best method, but better than shooting up a phone booth? You’d better believe it. The hot weather permeates Foster’s descent into madness, a looming symbol of tension as nothing gets solved and chaos continues.
Do The Right Thing
When it comes to heat being a living, breathing figure of unease, it’s nigh on impossible to beat Spike Lee’s genius treatise on racial tension. The initial name for the joint was Heatwave, with high temperature representing the catalyst for social unrest. When Lee asked cinematographer Ernest R Dickinson to make the audience feel heat, Dickinson’s psychological research led him to a ‘controlled palette that pretty much stayed in the warm range – yellows, reds, earth tones, ambers’ to formulate the hottest day of the summer in visual terminology. The fact that the nervous angles of Carol Reid’s The Third Man were an inspiration for both Dickinson and Lee just speaks to the intense claustrophobia coursing through Do the Right Thing’s veins.
Giancarlo Esposito (who played Buggin’ Out), now more well-known as Breaking Bad villain Gustavo Fring, described the film’s whole style as a ‘heightened reality’, describing how the nerves of the actors on-set contributed to the film’s special quality. As the heat of the ‘day’ (the film was shot over eight weeks) increases, so too does the nervous anticipation as events broil into violence. Without Dickinson’s powerful cinematography, heat would lose its place as a pivotal character in this astounding drama that remains unfortunately relevant.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Okay, let’s cool things down a bit. If you’re looking for a bit of summer joy, then watching Ferris running around duping Ed Rooney is bound to provide some holiday hijinks. And all of the surrounding players are really funny too. Particularly Cameron during the phone call scene. And just in terms of the general quotability. Partly because I’ve watched this joint a fair few times, but there are some bangers, no doubt. No precise dates are ever specified, but you can tell it’s summer, close to graduation, anyway. And the summer joy is in full bloom during the iconic Twist and Shout sequence. Whenever Ferris manages to successfully evade his pursuers or get his way, it’s always comedy gold. Although it’s relevant that after a few rewatches, you do realise how much of a douche that Ferris is to Cameron. But hey, it’s a comedy, and a sunny comedy too, so I’m willing to discard that fact.
The Talented Mr Ripley
Now, back to darker stuff. But still light, because most of Anthony Mingella’s brilliant thriller takes place in lovely sunny sunshine. Sure, a murder or two might take place here and there, but there’s some nice Mediterranean heat to accompany the death. But that’s not just Mediterranean heat. That’s Tom Ripley heat, an atmospheric means to symbolise the central character’s fear of being exposed as the fraud he is. The heat doesn’t seem to affect Dickie Greenleaf, Tom’s source of fascination, but Tom’s sweating clothes betray a deeper anxiety. Dickie’s murder takes place in the exposed sun on a boat as Tom’s façade slips away.
No amount of mimicry can hide Tom’s murderous nature, with the character resorting to killing once again in the film’s final scene as his identity is once again at risk of being exposed. The sun acts as an all-seeing judge in the tense thriller, trying and failing throughout the film to expose the conman that nobody else can see.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Okay, a bit lighter again. Now we’re talking about heat and summer in terms of the summer blockbuster. Yes, this is superior to the original joint, but bear in mind that the OG had a much tighter budget and had more of a horror vibe to it, whereas this one’s a much more action-driven caper with cool special effects. And no, I’m not just picking this one because of Sarah’s dream sequence where the world suddenly gets really hot and explodes. Or because of a certain machine’s heat-related demise (c’mon, you should’ve watched this film by now). It’s a genuine summer film filled with lots of light. Because it takes place during the day. And it’s a great blockbuster movie. That moment where Sarah sees Arnie for the first time and thinks he’s still evil from the first movie? That was awesome. Probably would’ve been more awesome if I’d watched the first one before this, but I was too young for that at the time, k?
Midsommer
And now back to the dark. But also, light. Because, you know, this is a summer film. Just a summer film that happens to involve ritual sacrifice, rape, a bear suit and a big ass yellow tent. Huge. How did they construct that thing? Impressive. The Wicker Man influences are strong in Ari Aster’s follow-up to Hereditary, but Aster still makes it his own thing with some super creepy aesthetics and that gorgeous/horrifying final image of Florence Pugh’s facial expression. Florence Pugh’s awesome, btw. I haven’t seen her in anything bad so far. Or at least, she’s always good performance-wise, even if the overall film itself isn’t up to standard. Aster’s great at planting the seeds of dread as we watch everything play out. In gorgeous sunlight, no less. Gorgeous, claustrophobic sunlight that visualises the apocalyptic doom of a relationship. Maybe the two members of the relationship didn’t need to be treated like that (thinking of one in particular), but uh, you know, I guess they’re not in that relationship anymore. Hooray?