Winter is a season for struggling: struggling to get out of bed, struggling to turn the shower off (when it is so warm and steamy and nice!), struggling to leave the house, struggling to develop enough muscular strength under the burden of endless cups of tea. The outside world – once you struggle to meet it – is so cold, unwelcoming and dark; trees and gardens are stripped and exposed, the sun is a weak LCD bulb in the sky, everything is dull and mute and grey. Winter, my friends, is no fun at all, so let’s be glad that it’s nearly over.

If you need some warm thoughts or warm images to carry you through the final weeks of winter, then you are in the right place. We’ve put together a list of five films that should get you thinking summery thoughts, inject you with a mediated dose of vitamin D and remind you about the sunshine and steamy times that are right around the corner:

Dirty Dancing

I am one of those people who happens to think that Dirty Dancing is both WEIRD and CREEPY. If it is set in 1963 then why does everyone have ‘80s hair? What’s the deal with calling a grown woman “Baby”? But I also recognise that I am in a minority here and that disliking Dirty Dancing makes me NO FUN AT ALL, so I am trying to make amends by including it on this list. Set in a holiday resort during summer in the Catskills, Dirty Dancing also serves to remind us of everything that’s good about the hottest season of the year: swimming in lakes, watermelon, dancing in your underpants and taking up weird hobbies, like grinding on Patrick Swayze.



Adventureland

I happen to be exceptionally fond of Adventureland, which is set during an awkward summer in between graduating from college and figuring out what to do with the rest of your life (for some people – not mentioning any names – this period of indecision goes on forever). After finishing his degree, James (Jesse Eisenberg) originally imagined his summer would involve a trip to Europe, but after his parents tell him to get a job, he ends up working in a rundown amusement park instead (which is basically the same thing as going to Europe, let’s be honest). The drama is the typical stuff of coming-of-age stories, but told by a gang of misfits – who are each adrift in their own way and trying to figure out a path through the messy, blobby clump we call life. Spending a summer working in a theme park isn’t such a bad thing at all, even if it sometimes involves cleaning up puke.



Do the Right Thing

If think you’ve been missing hot summer days, then fear not: Do the Right Thing will remind you what they’re like (kind of oppressive, sweaty, unpleasant). Set on the hottest day of the year in Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York, the film shows racial tensions reach a boiling point after the fallout from a simple disagreement. For Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito), the “Wall of Fame” at Sal’s pizza joint – a neighbourhood institution for 25 years – should include pictures of African Americans, instead of just Italian Americans. “Hey, Sal,” Buggin’ Out asks, “how come there ain't no brothas on the wall?” Sal replies that he likes the wall the way it is, but if Buggin’ Out wants to open his own pizza joint, he can put pictures of whoever he likes on the wall. Director Spike Lee has described this conversation as containing “two valid points” – that is, each man’s insistence on having things his own way is as valid as the other’s – but the eventual outcome from the disagreement is terrible, deadly and violent. For every action, there is sometimes an equal, opposite and catastrophic reaction.

Watch the trailer here.

The Towering Inferno

They don’t make movies like The Towering Inferno anymore and I think we can all agree that this is a great shame. Things we are missing out on: Steve McQueen pretending to be a fire chief (and wearing a fancy hat while talking on a white plastic phone), Paul Newman playing an architect (and saying things like, “I didn't say kill all the power, just the overload!”), an all-star supporting cast who have, for some reason, decided to star in a movie about an electrical fire. The Towering Inferno isn’t going to win any prizes for anything, really – it’s a bit too long and a bit too lavish and in love with itself for that – but it is nearly three hours of heat and fire, which, if you’re feeling cold, should make you feel nice and toasty warm.



Lilo & Stitch

There’s something in the watercolour, sunset skies of Lilo & Stitch that makes me think of the word DELIGHTFUL. They also make me think of the word HAWAII, for this is where our tale is set. I’m not sure if it’s anything other than summer in Hawaii (officially: Hawaii’s climate is remarkably consistent), so if you’re looking for an escape from grey skies and biting winds, then the volcanic archipelago seems like a good place to go. Lilo & Stitch is set on Kaua’i – the fourth biggest of the Hawaiian islands – and tells the story of an extra-terrestrial scientific experiment, Stitch, and his (her? I don’t know?) friendship with a Hawaiian girl named Lilo. Stitch is a runaway from the Galactic Federation, while Lilo is in the care of her sister, Nani, who has a whole list of problems of her own that she needs to deal with. The film is a combination of chase-drama (will the Galactic Federation recapture Stitch?) and family melodrama (will Lilo, as the social worker suggested, have to leave Nani’s care?), but at its heart, Lilo & Stitch is a film about family, belonging and love. In the words of dear Stitch, who describes his (her? I don’t know) relationship with Lilo: “This is my family. I found it, all on my own. Is little, and broken, but still good. Ya. Still good.”