griggs's - Scorched Screen 2025: Heatwave Cinema (Ranked) List
-
From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino comes a monumental and deeply romantic story of a lifetime. Born in the Bay of Naples in 1950, Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta) searches for happiness over the long summers of her youth, falling in love with her home city and its many memorable characters. But when tragedy strikes, and carefree romances lose their thrill, she decides to seek a deeper sense of purpose. Featuring a captivating performance from Dalla Porta and an outstanding cast that includes Gary Oldman, 'Parthenope' is another tale of great beauty from a master of modern cinema. - Director:
- Paolo Sorrentino
- Cast:
- Celeste Dalla Porta, Stefania Sandrelli, Gary Oldman
- Formats:
-
-
Malcolm and Sofia, two determined teens from New York City, are the ultimate graffiti-writers. When a rival gang buffs their latest masterpiece, they must hatch a plan to get revenge by tagging an iconic NYC landmark, but they need to raise $500 to pull off their spectacular scheme. Over the course of two whirlwind, sun-soaked summer days, Malcolm and Sofia travel on an epic urban adventure involving black market spray cans, illicit bodegas, stolen sneakers, a high stakes heist, and a beautiful, stoned girl whose necklace is literally their key to becoming the biggest writers in the City. - Director:
- Adam Leon
- Cast:
- Ty Hickson, Tashiana Washington, Joshua Rivera
- Formats:
-
-
Blissfully Yours (2002)Sud Sanaeha
Innovative and enigmatic, Blissfully Yours is a languid celebration of the pleasures of the moment. In Apichatpong's heady, sensual and playful film, a leisurely road trip and a picnic in the jungle give way to uninhibited emotion and eroticism. A meditation on happiness, superstition, politics and sexuality, nothing really happens except that it happens with a purpose. Blissfully Yours confirms the reputation of one of the most distinctive new filmmakers in world cinema. - Director:
- Apichatpong Weerasethakul
- Cast:
- Kanokporn Tongaram, Min Oo, Jenjira Jansuda
- Formats:
-
-
Easygoing expatriate Jack Flowers (Ben Gazzara) makes his living in early-1970's Singapore legally and illegally looking after the needs of American and British businessmen, such as the mild-mannered William Leigh (Denholm Elliott). With his gift for putting clients and girls at ease, Jack opens a successful brothel, but pressure from local mobsters soon puts him out of business. Ever the survivor, he starts working for the shady, Cuban-cigar-smoking Eddie Schuman (Peter Bogdanovich) as a pimp for GI's on breaks from Vietnam. But Jack's conscience starts to dog him when Schuman hires him to take compromising pictures of a visiting Senator (George Lazenby). 'Saint Jack' offers a pimp with a heart of gold, who is less an ugly colonial American abroad than an outsider trying to make the best of a bad situation. - Director:
- Peter Bogdanovich
- Cast:
- Ben Gazzara, Denholm Elliott, James Villiers
- Formats:
-
-
In the harsh, unforgiving landscape of the Outback, Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) is presented with an impossible proposition by local law enforcer Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone). To save his younger brother Mikey from the gallows he must track down and kill Arthur (Danny Huston), his psychotic older brother. While Charlie is forced to choose between revenge, loyalty and his own conscience, Stanley, having given up a civilised life in England, is determined to impose law and order and shield his innocent wife Martha (Emily Watson) from the brutalities of their new surroundings. A palpable sense of foreboding festers against the oppressive heat, as each character takes on their punishing moral dilemmas and the inevitable cycle of violence reaches its bloody conclusion. - Director:
- John Hillcoat
- Cast:
- Ray Winstone, Guy Pearce, Emily Watson
- Formats:
-
-
La Piscine (1969)The Swimming Pool
Jacques Deray's 1969 classic 'La Piscine' is set in a magnificent villa near a sun-drenched St. Tropez, where Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) and Marianne (Romy Schneider) are spending a happy, lazy summer holiday. Their only concern is to gratify their mutual passion - until the day when Marianne invites her former lover and his beautiful teenage daughter to spend a few days with them. From the first moment, a certain uneasiness and tension begin to develop between the four, which soon escalates in a dangerous love-game. - Director:
- Jacques Deray
- Cast:
- Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet
- Formats:
-
-
Based on the novel by L.P. Hartley, 'The Go-Between'[ links the present and the past taking an ageing bachelor back to the long hot summer when he was twelve and lost his boyish heart to a beautiful, headstrong young woman who used his adoration to suit her own purposes. Summer 1900: Leo is the guest of Marcus, a wealthy classmate, at a grand home in rural Norfolk. Leo is befriended by Marion (Julie Christie), Marcus's sister who is about to be engaged to Huge who is a viscount, however she has fallen in love with a handsome young tenant farmer (Alan Bates) who's class difference make an open affair unthinkable. She is unable to resist temptation though and sends messages to her lover to arrange a meeting through Leo, the go-between - Director:
- Joseph Losey
- Cast:
- Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton
- Formats:
-
-
The Long Hot Summer (1958)Dugo toplo ljeto
When suspected barn burner Ben Quick (Paul Newman) drifts into a town dominated by Will Varner (Orson Welles), he is recruited to husband Varner's spinster daughter (Joanne Woodward) so that Varner can keep an eye on him. But the two men soon lock horns, and a chain of events leaves them all changed forever. - Director:
- Martin Ritt
- Cast:
- Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa
- Formats:
-
-
Summer of 85 (2020)Été 85
When Alexis (Flix Lefebvre) capsizes off the coast of Normandy, David (Benjamin Voisin) comes to the rescue and soon opens the younger boys eyes to a new horizon of friendship, art, and sexual bliss. David's worldly demeanor and Jewish heritage deliver an ardent jolt to Alexis's traditional, working-class upbringing. After Alexis begins working at the seaside shop owned by David's mother (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), the two lovers steal every possible moment for a fugitive kiss, a motorcycle ride, or a trip to the cinema. Their relationship is soon rocked by a host of challenges, including an unexpected sexual rival (Philippine Velge) and a romantic oath that transcends life itself. Adapted by Franois Ozon from Aidan Chambers's groundbreaking LGBT young adult novel 'Dance on My Grave', 'Summer of 85' is a sexy, nostalgic reverie of first love and its consequences from one of France's most versatile filmmakers. - Director:
- François Ozon
- Cast:
- Félix Lefebvre, Benjamin Voisin, Philippine Velge
- Formats:
-
-
The Endless Summer (1966)Vågornas riddare
The definitive surf movie, Bruce Brown's iconic documentary follows two young American surfers, Robert August and Mike Hynson, as they search the globe for 'the perfect wave'. Stunningly photographed, their unique quest takes them from California to Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti and Hawaii with little more than surfboards and wax as luggage. Perfectly capturing the art and essence of surfing - the passion, dedication and simple joy of 'living the dream' - the film was an immediate cult hit on release and continues to inspire all those searching for their own 'Endless Summer'. - Director:
- Bruce Brown
- Cast:
- Robert August, Michael Hynson, Lord James Blears
- Formats:
-
-
Popular and charming, student counsellor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) is no stranger to being the focus of female attention within the moneyed cliques of Florida's Blue Bay. His fortunes are about to change dramatically, however, when one of the wealthiest students at his high school, sultry siren Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards), accuses him of rape. The charge looks sure to stick when another girl from the other end of the social spectrum, Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell), steps forward with her own allegations, but Detective Duquette (Kevin Bacon) smells something fishy, and the truth is as murky and dangerous as the alligator-infested swamps in the hinterlands of this affluent beach community. - Director:
- John McNaughton
- Cast:
- Kevin Bacon, Neve Campbell, Matt Dillon
- Formats:
-
-
This electrifying action sequel unleashes the deadly invisible Predator in another jungle - the urban jungle of Los Angeles. Danny Glover stars as a lieutenant who mistakenly concludes that mangled bodies found by the police are the work of feuding gangs. Instead, he finds himself confronting a savage alien who has come from a distant world to hunt humans for sports. Gary Busey and Ruben Blades co-star in this suspense-packed, high-tech thriller. - Director:
- Stephen Hopkins
- Cast:
- Danny Glover, Hal Rayle, Gary Busey
- Formats:
-
-
On a small southern Louisiana island exists a forgotten ramshackle town known as The Bathtub, the proud home of six-year-old Hushpuppy and her father Wink. When her defiant father becomes ill and an environmental disaster causes ferocious floods to engulf the area, Hushpuppy is forced to survive on her own. Now she must face the elements, her destiny and prehistoric beasts that have awoken from their frozen graves. - Director:
- Benh Zeitlin
- Cast:
- Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly
- Formats:
-
-
The Big Easy (1987)The Big Ea$y
Set against the steamy backdrop of one of America's most mysterious cities, an erotic tale of passion, corruption and murder unravels. Lieutenant Remy McSwain (Dennis Quaid) is a streetwise New Orleans Cop, who has his territory under control, or so he thinks. Following a series of 'Mafia Style' hits, Anne Osbourne (Ellen Barkin), the new assistant District Attorney, is assigned to investigate the corruption within the department. The chemistry between McSwain and Osbourne is instant and electric, but as the two battle on seemingly separate sides they are forced to realise that they will have to sacrifice more than their beliefs in right and wrong, if they are going to put things right, down in 'The Big Easy'. - Director:
- Jim McBride
- Cast:
- Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin, Ned Beatty
- Formats:
-
-
Los Angeles, 2008. Southland Tales is a darkly comic, futuristic epic set over the course of three days as the city stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster, in an America under the thumb of the sinister all-seeing agency US-Ident. A large ensemble cast of characters includes Boxer Santaros, an action star stricken with amnesia, Krysta Now, a porn star with her own reality TV project, and Roland Taverner, a cop who holds the key to a vast conspiracy. - Director:
- Richard Kelly
- Cast:
- Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott
- Formats:
-