The A.V. Club summer movie guide
We love the annual Summer Music And Movies series at Loring Park; who doesn’t? But that’s not all that’s out there—not by a long shot—and it doesn’t start until August, anyway. The fact is, the list of movies playing in our fair cities this summer is expansive. The Minneapolis Park And Rec.’s Movies In The Parks series alone could keep one occupied almost every night of the week for the next three months. (The series will even include Games 6 and 7 of the Twins ’91 World Series!) That being said, The A.V. Club’s got your back, whether you’re looking for a two-hour respite from the heat or a free outdoor date where you don’t have to talk.
Movies In The Parks
By far the most thorough of the summer movies series, The Minneapolis Park And Rec.’s Music And Movies In The Parks and St. Paul’s similar Comcast Movies In The Park scatter a variety of films across the cities from June to September. We’ve handpicked a choice few.
June 17: The Sandlot, Hiawatha School Park
Yes, it’s playfully predictable, and, yes, it pulls at you with overt and over the top nostalgia, but isn’t that kind of the point? The Sandlot is big, and in its better moments, it fills the boots of its own greatness without ever trying to shed its silliness. This isn’t just about baseball, or childhood, or even friendship. In a way, The Sandlot is Little Rascals meets The Great Gatsby, with Scotty Smalls acting as Nick Carraway and Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez as both Daisy and Jay Gatsby.
July 7: Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, Lyndale Farmstead Park
July 9: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Van Cleve Park
July 13: Twins ’91 World Series Game 6, Northeast Park
July 26: Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Father Hennepin Bluffs Park
August 1: Twins ’91 World Series Game 7, Northeast Park
August 22: Teen Wolf, Beltrami Park
Cinema And Civics series at Stevens Square Park
The “civics” aspect of Stevens Square “Cinema And Civics” is pretty loose. Sure, there’s a community potluck that goes along with the June 29 showing, and July 13 has a clothes swap, but “Cinema and Civics” is “civic” more in the sense that organizers chose, as their civic duty, a string of movies that any child of the 1980s will obligatorily go apeshit for. A local musical act is attached to each date, and there’s a bit more elbow room than at the more crowded Loring Park iteration.
June 22: Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan with Red Pens
June 29: Back To The Future with Lucy Michelle And The Velvet Lapelles
July 6: Beetlejuice with BadNRad
July 13: The Dark Crystal with Hastings 3000
Set alongside our current CGI age, Frank Oz and Jim Henson’s 1982 all-Muppet epic about the Skeksis and Gelflings seems an even more stammering feat of animatronic engineering and costume design. Also, holy moly, there’s a sequel in the works! Power Of The Dark Crystal is currently in production; set geek-out phasers to “stunned.”
July 20: Local short films with The Goondas
Midnight Retro at Willow Creek 12
June 10, 11: The Jerk
June 17, 18: Pretty Woman
June 24, 25: Psycho
July 1, 2: Back To The Future
July 8, 9: What About Bob?
Perhaps the most ingeniously irritating character in cinematic history, Bill Murray is Bob Wiley, an eccentric phobic who latches himself onto his egotistical psychiatrist on a family vacation, subsequently causing the shrink to have a psychotic breakdown. Bill Murray’s comedic performance is stand-out great and the film’s success even sparked a loose Bollywood remake, Deewana Mastana.
July 15, 16: Jaws
Late Night at The Riverview Theater
June 17, 18: The Princess Bride
June 24, 25: Fast Times At Ridgemont High
July 1, 2: Groundhog Day
July 8, 9: Jaws
July 15, 16: Batman
July 22, 23: Alien
In this opener of the Alien franchise, Ridley Scott gives us our first glimpse of Ripley, a whip-smart ass-kicking ship captain, plagued with reoccurring alien problems. In the shadow of the action-packed sequel Aliens, one forgets that Alien is first and foremost a suspense-driven horror flick bolstered by strong performances from supporting cast members like Harry Dean Stanton and John Hurt.
July 29, 30: The Big Lebowski
August 5, 6: The Matrix
Nobody’s Perfect: The Films of Billy Wilder at The Heights and The Trylon
July 31: The Apartment (The Heights)
Where to start? The Apartment was nominated for 10 academy awards, and took home five, including best picture. Wilder’s masterfully written comedy is all at once a critique of the corporate ladder, a contemplation on loneliness, and a controversial exploration of infidelity and adultery. And Jack Lemmon’s C.C. Baxter? Well he’s the spineless and sycophantic go-getter we’ve always wanted to love.
August 5-7: Sabrina (The Trylon)
August 7: The Seven Year Itch (The Heights)
August 12-14: One, Two Three (The Trylon)
August 14: Double Indemnity (The Heights)
August 19-21: The Fortune Cookie (The Trylon)
August 21: Some Like It Hot (The Heights)
August 26-28: Ace in the Hole (The Trylon)
August 28: Sunset Boulevard (The Heights)
Rob Chapman’s Rock ’N’ Roll Moving Picture Show at Pepitos Parkway Theater
July 7: The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Night
August 6: The Last Waltz
One of the greatest concert movies ever made, Martin Scorsese’s record of the Band’s musical goodbye to touring through one final performance is studded with appearances by the likes of Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Eric Clapton. It’s less a tearful end to one band’s career than it’s an ambiguous, and probably unintentional, farewell to an era. Still, this doesn’t explain that strange Neil Diamond cameo.
September 1: Hail! Hail! Rock N’ Roll
Miscellaneous, but of note
June 23: Laura, The Heights Theatre
Otto Preminger’s 1944 film noir classic has been called “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant” by the Library Of Congress. It ranks on scores of different best-of lists, including at least three done by the AFI. Nevermind all of that, though: Laura, which follows New York detective Mark Mcpherson as he investigates the murder of a beautiful advertising executive, remains popular because it’s a damn entertaining film. Vincent Price is spot on as the victim’s fiancé, too.
