Wet Hot American Summer Is the Movie For the Season—Plus Three More Summer Stories
Wet Hot American Summer is back in theaters August 14!
This summer, kick back and chill with David Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer, which will be released on August 14 for a 25th-anniversary limited engagement. A hilarious spoof of summer camp movies, the film features a stellar cast— Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Janeane Garofalo, Molly Shannon, Bradley Cooper, and Elizabeth Banks, among others—as the insane staff of Camp Firewood. From a talking can of mixed vegetables to an over-the-top talent show to counselors throwing temper tantrums, the film is non-stop inspired mayhem. When it was released in 2001, Entertainment Weekly gave the film an “A” for its “loving and meticulous re-creation of the last moment before American youth culture went permanently ironic.” Recently, Them wrote that Wet Hot American Summer "feels just as mind-numbingly hilarious as it did two decades ago.”
To get into the fun of the season, we’re showcasing three other movies that capture the spirit of summer all year long.
Get tickets for Wet Hot American Summer now, returning to theaters August 14!
The official trailer for Wet Hot American Summer
Girls Like Girls
Maya da Costa and Myra Molloy in Girls Like Girls
In Hayley Kiyoko's Girls Like Girls, Coley (Maya da Costa) has just moved to a small town in Oregon in the summer of 2006 when she meets Sonya (Myra Molloy), a charismatic girl at the center of the town’s social circle. Glances turn to smiles which begin flirtations which turn into a feeling of real love. From the music to what Variety describes as its “gorgeously hot, honey-dipped lensing,” the film makes palpable the sensation of summer. The Seattle Times writes, “Kiyoko beautifully captures the looseness of teens hanging out, the vague endlessness of summer when you’re young and the shimmery, shivery feeling of first love.”
The official trailer for Girls Like Girls
Downton Abbey: A New Era
Harry Hadden-Paton, Laura Carmichael, Tuppence Middleton, and Allen Leech in Downton Abbey: A New Era
Set during the summer of 1928, Simon Curtis’ Downton Abbey: A New Era expands the world of the Crawleys to include the south of France. While Mary (Michelle Dockery) stays home to oversee a Hollywood film crew taking over the manor to shoot a movie, the rest of the clan head to the Riviera to enjoy the elegant villa that Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith) has just inherited. There, Slate writes, “everyone gets to don gorgeous summer-weight clothes and swan about in a beautiful bit of countryside.” Indeed, like many summer get-aways, both the film and the south of France provide a stunning escape. If you can shut out the real world in favor of a fantasy remembrance of things past, you’re in for a treat,” ABC writes.
The official trailer for Downton Abbey: A New Era
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
Nia Vardalos and John Corbett in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
In My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, writer, director, and star Nia Vardalos takes the extended family for a summer vacation back to where it all began—Greece. In the small village where her father grew up, Toula (Vardalos) discovers a connection to the land and people. “There's magic in Greece. There's stillness, vibrancy, mysticism, a connection to history and roots,” Vardalos says in the film’s production notes. Everyone else—from Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin) to the newer members like Paris (Elena Kampouris)—is also caught up with the Greek spirit during their summer interlude. Collider writes, “It is full of so much joy, and so much heart, celebrating family, culture, and love, while also emphasizing that even the most ancient of civilizations aren't completely trapped in the past, especially if the new generation has anything to say about it.”
The official trailer for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
