The 15 Best Summer Movies Of All Time, Ranked

The sun is out, the air is humid, and the beach is crowded with tourists and families. Summer is officially here, which, for many of us, means that we're going to spend the next few months not enjoying the great outdoors, but staying inside where there's air conditioning and ice cream. But what should we be watching on our summer movie marathons while everyone else is leaving the TV off to visit water parks and take cross-country trips with their loved ones?

Have no fear! These 15 films may span a wide range of genres — from comedy to fantasy to even horror — but they all have one thing in common: They all take place in the summer. The characters might be people looking to get away from their monotonous lives on vacation, or may simply be used to living their life in the summery weather of Los Angeles or Italy. But believe it or not — there are plenty of other reasons we love these movies aside from their seasonal vibes. 

Before you head out on any family road trips this summer, a good way to de-stress would be to watch "National Lampoon's Vacation," the 1983 comedy about a vacation where everything that can go wrong does go wrong. "Vacation" is a hodge-podge of early '80s comedy royalty: director Harold Ramis, screenwriter John Hughes, leading man Chevy Chase, and supporting appearances from John Candy, Imogene Coca, and Eugene Levy. 

While the National Lampoon's "Vacation" movies may have spawned a film franchise featuring better films like "European Vacation" and "Christmas Vacation" in '85 and '89, respectively, the tale of the Griswold family's cross-country trip to Walley World is a perfect representation of how chaotic albeit fun-filled summer vacations can be. Many of the best scenes in the "Vacation" franchise feature Clark Griswold's (Chase) meltdowns over his inability to control his own misfortune, making it the type of road trip comedy that remains all too relatable even today. 

Rian Johnson's 2019 murder mystery "Knives Out" captured a specific autumnal vibe, from the misty view of Harlan Thrombey's New England mansion to Chris Evans' now-iconic white sweater. For the 2022 follow-up, "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," Daniel Craig reprises his role as bumbling but brilliant detective Benoit Blanc in a much different setting: The private island of billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), who organizes a murder mystery party-gone-wrong with his eclectic inner circle. This group includes scientist Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.), fashion designer Birdie (Kate Hudson) and her assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick), Senate candidate Claire (Kathryn Hahn), video game streamer Duke (Dave Bautista) and his trophy girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline), and ex-business partner Andi (Janelle Monáe). 

While "Knives Out" was already an immediate modern classic, in "Glass Onion," Johnson outdoes himself with a hilarious whodunnit, with unpredictable twists, entertaining characters, and a truly cathartic ending for anyone who is exasperated from hearing about certain billionaires in the news. Plus, Benoit Blanc provides some of the most stunning summer fits in recent film history, serving as the perfect inspiration for anyone looking to revamp their wardrobe for the season.

What sport feels more synonymous with summer than baseball? And what film perfectly captures the spirit of said sport than 1993's "The Sandlot"? A young Tom Guiry stars as Scotty Smalls, the new kid in his San Fernando Valley neighborhood who joins the local Little League baseball team, making friends with kids just like him and learning that, according to Benny (Mike Vitar), baseball is really a way of life. 

For those of us who grew up watching "The Sandlot" and envying finding adventure in a small town's baseball community, there's not a single one of us who wasn't madly in love with Marley Shelton as lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn, who is fawned over by the prepubescent baseball boys. Though it may cause you to feel incredibly old when you find out where the actors from "The Sandlot" are now, this film captures how pivotal summers can be in the lives of young men. As you watch it, one moment you might be cheering for the team's baseball victories, and the next crying over how fleeting our childhoods are. 

Although most casual musical fans know Lin-Manuel Miranda as the creator of "Hamilton," real theatre nerds knew of his genius after his first musical, "In the Heights," premiered on Broadway in 2008. Based on his own upbringing in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, "In the Heights" follows several intertwining narratives on the hottest day of summer. While movie musicals can be hit or miss, the 2021 adaptation of "In the Heights" is crowd-pleasing, full of big emotions, big dreams, and big songs. 

"In the Heights" stars Miranda's former "Hamilton" co-star Anthony Ramos as Usnavi, a bodega owner with dreams of moving to the Dominican Republic, with an incredible supporting cast, including Corey Hawkins, Melissa Barrera, and Leslie Grace. The real strength of "In the Heights" is Jon M. Chu's directing, which perfectly translates complex and grandiose musical numbers like "96,000" and "Blackout" to the big screen. Though its theatrical run was sabotaged by COVID-19, forcing it to simultaneously release on HBO Max, it's a film that makes good use of its cinematic scale to make this humble, summer-set New York story feel larger than life. 

Few directors make Los Angeles look as gorgeous on film as Paul Thomas Anderson, but in 2021, the auteur director did some of his best filmmaking. In "Licorice Pizza," Anderson's wonderful trip back to the 1970s, Cooper Hoffman stars as Gary Valentine, a child actor and teenage entrepreneur who falls in love at first sight with a wayward woman in her mid-20s, Alana Kane (Alana Haim), and the two start a friendship that's as innocent as it is perverse.

Coming from the director of "Boogie Nights" and "Punch-Drunk Love," "Licorice Pizza" is a film that's so clearly made by a master at work. Though there's plenty of great supporting performances from the likes of Skyler Gisondo, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Benny Safdie, the real stars here are Hoffman and Haim, both making dynamite acting debuts. Plus, it features some of the best scenes of PTA's entire filmography, including Bradley Cooper's intimidating appearance as Jon Peters as well as Alana arguing with her sisters, played by Haim's real-life sisters and bandmates Danielle and Este. 

Lots of people like to claim that Pixar's golden era of animated movies is long gone, but those people probably didn't watch "Luca" when it was released in 2021. It was easy to miss the summer-y Pixar film given that Disney opted to doom it to a direct-to-streaming release rather than give it the theatrical premiere it deserved. What's even worse is that, visually, "Luca" is one of the most stunning animated films in recent years, following the friendship between two sea monsters, Luca (Jacob Tremblay) and Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), who masquerade as human boys to participate in a bicycle race near the coastal Italian town of Portorosso.

As is the case with many of Pixar's best works, sweet and simple is the recipe in this exquisite Ghibli-inspired throwback, which will make you long for a summer getaway in Italy as much as it'll make you hungry for pasta. Simply put, in an oeuvre filled with nostalgic, feel-good movies, "Luca" proves that even 20 years in, Pixar can make original films that feel like magic, even when the setting feels so grounded.

Sean Baker just recently swept the Academy Awards with his film "Anora," but many cinephiles agree that the writer-director deserved even more accolades with his 2017 drama "The Florida Project," a much more innocent and nostalgic film than his most recent project. Brooklynn Prince stars as Moonee, a six-year-old girl living with her mom, Halley (Bria Vinaite), in squalor at a motel near Walt Disney World in Orlando. While Halley makes ends meet as a stripper, Moonee is watched over by the curmudgeonly motel manager, Bobby (Willem Dafoe). 

While "The Florida Project" might've been the best movie of the year in 2017, it was up against stiff competition at the Academy Awards against the likes of "The Shape of Water," "Lady Bird," and "Get Out," ultimately only netting a single nomination for Dafoe in Best Supporting Actor. While it's a very sad and tragic story about homelessness and loss of innocence, its visual language just reeks of those low-budget summers to be had in a place like Orlando, which might be a resort destination for some, but is a place of serious financial ruin for others. 

Speaking of devastatingly sad 2017 films that ooze summer-y vibes, "Call Me By Your Name" is a story of first love worth falling head over heels for. It's arguably the film that transformed its star, Timothée Chalamet, from "young Casey Affleck in 'Interstellar'" to possibly the biggest young actor in the world right now, with his performance as Elio, a teenage boy frustrated with his complex romantic feelings for Oliver (Armie Hammer), an archaeology student of his father (Michael Stuhlbarg). Since its release almost 10 years ago, it's become an integral entry in LGBTQ films, of which there are a lot to watch during Pride Month (and the rest of summer, if you can't fit them all in one month). 

While there are plenty of movies like "Call Me By Your Name" you really need to see during the summer, few of them are as aesthetically pleasing to watch as this one. A lot of the credit can go to director Luca Guadagnino, who seems to have proven himself an expert of visually stunning summer films in recent years like "Challengers" and "Queer." Given that it made Chalamet the third-youngest nominee for Best Actor in Oscars history, it's worth watching if you want to understand the hype surrounding the "Dune" star. 

It would be morally reprehensible to make a list of the best summer movies without mentioning one of the most underrated comedy movies out there: "Wet Hot American Summer." This absurd summer camp comedy has a stacked cast of comedy icons, including members of The State (Michael Showalter, Ken Marino, Michael Ian Black, and others), Amy Poehler, David Hyde Pierce, Paul Rudd, Janeane Garofalo, and even Bradley Cooper in his film debut. 

The film centers on the campers and counselors on the last day of camp at Camp Firewood in 1981, chock full of hilarious bits and interweaving stories involving a talent show, unrequited love, and a falling satellite that threatens the lives of the campers. If this absurd and iconic cult comedy isn't enough to satiate your desire to see something truly ridiculous, then fear not, because Netflix also has two follow-up series: Prequel "First Day of Camp" in 2015, and sequel "Ten Years Later" in 2017. 

These days, George Lucas is mostly known for being the creator of "Star Wars," but before "A New Hope" was released in 1977, he created one of the most iconic summer movies with "American Graffiti" in 1973. In a much different world than galaxies far, far away, "American Graffiti" is set in early '60s Modesto, California, following teenagers Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) and Steve (Ron Howard) on the last day of summer vacation before they set off for college, spending their time with friends drag-racing, picking up girls, and committing petty crime. 

Regardless of whether you have or haven't already seen "American Graffiti," revisiting Lucas' pre-"Star Wars" masterpiece is a must, especially as it gets later in the summer and you start to long for those idyllic early days of vacation. It's one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 1970s, and for many was as generation-defining as films like "The Breakfast Club" or "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Plus, it'll make even those who weren't alive for their release long for the days before Lucas was driven by technology to make the "Star Wars" prequels. 

On one hand, summer vacation is something we wish never ends, but for the characters in "Palm Springs," they get to actually experience it. The 2020 film follows Sarah (Cristin Milioti) and Nyles (Andy Samberg), two strangers who meet at the wedding of Sarah's half-sister (Camila Mendes), but after a reckless hook-up, Sarah inadvertently discovers that Nyles is stuck in a "Groundhog Day"-esque time loop repeating the same day over and over, which she decides to break free from whilst slowly falling in love with her purgatory partner.

Not only is "Palm Springs" one of the best time loop movies of all time, but it's also among the best wedding movies, and on top of all that, it offers a summer vibe that is as envious to those watching as it is nightmarish to the characters trapped inside. However, sci-fi tropes and summer aesthetics aside, the real thing that makes "Palm Springs" stand out is its lead actors, Milioti and Samberg, who both give career-best performances as two imperfect people struggling to embrace eternity together. 

This list has thus far consisted of films that are laugh-out-loud funny and twist your heart a million ways, so "The Way, Way Back" earns its spot near the top for doing both so perfectly. Released in 2013 and co-written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, "The Way, Way Back" centers on Duncan (Liam James), a socially awkward teen forced into a summer vacation with his mother (Toni Collette) and her condescending boyfriend (Steve Carell). Liam finds an escape by working odd jobs at a local water park run by its irresponsible owner, Owen (Sam Rockwell). 

As audiences agreed after its premiere at Sundance 2013, "The Way, Way Back" is a star-studded, crowd-pleasing comedy that's full of heart and laughs. It might be easy to predict where it's heading, but that doesn't make the sweet friendship between Duncan and Owen, as well as all the other eclectic water park employees, any less warm. Plus, the film does something that, in 2013, was thought to be impossible: it makes you absolutely despise Steve Carell. 

You don't need us at /Film to tell you that Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most gifted filmmakers in cinema history, because his 2001 movie "Spirited Away" says it for him. The first non-English-language animated film to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, "Spirited Away" is the story of Chihiro, a young girl whose summer road trip is derailed when her parents are cursed into becoming pigs by the witch Yubaba, who agrees to free her parents if Chihiro works in her bathhouse filled with monsters, spirits, and Kami. 

Although Miyazaki came up with the setting for "Spirited Away" by exploring Japanese mythology, the film spans generations by being a parable about childhood innocence inspired by his own summer vacations with his parents. While most American audiences have probably never been to a Japanese bathhouse nor have ridden a train with a mysterious, hungry spirit known as No-Face, they'll still find this fantasy movie deeply relatable and the perfect form of escapism for a summer movie marathon. 

Spike Lee's best movies have always spoken their own cinematic language, but few directors felt as confident by their third film as Lee did with his 1989 comedy "Do the Right Thing." The film features an ensemble cast including Lee, Giancarlo Esposito, Ruby Dee, and John Turturro, exploring the violent racial tensions of a Brooklyn neighborhood during a heat wave, creating a prescient portrait of America that remains nuanced to this day. 

Many critics cite "Do the Right Thing" as one of the greatest films of all time, and even next to Lee's other films like "Malcolm X" and "Da 5 Bloods," it stands out as a seminal part of American filmmaking history. That being said, as funny as "Do the Right Thing" can be, it's an incredibly tough movie to watch that, like the rest of Lee's work, challenges its audience with how brutal and morbid it is in its depiction of race relations in America. Nevertheless, its controversial aspects are also part of what makes it earn the No. 2 spot on this list, though there's one other film we couldn't help but place at No. 1 ...

Come on! It's "Jaws"! How could we end this list without including "Jaws"?

No one needs to be told that Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors in the history of film, but even after his career's worth of iconic and influential films, it's still hard to believe that only his second-ever film was "Jaws." Released in 1975, "Jaws" tells the story of police chief Brody (Roy Scheider), who is tasked with hunting a great white shark attacking residents of a New England beach town in the middle of summer. It's such an iconic summer film, but at the same time, it's also the kind of film to make you never go to the beach ever again.

With one summer blockbuster, Spielberg reshaped the box office by making a tremendously perfect film out of a chaotic production and the only two musical notes more iconic than the "Law & Order" "dun-dun." Simply put, you can't find a summer-set movie that's more influential or important to the world of film than "Jaws." The same cannot be said, sadly, for any of the "Jaws" movies that came after it, which look like chum in the water compared to their predecessor.