If you see only one movie this summer, see... well, you know the rest. Thankfully, there are alternatives for people who go to the multiplex with greater frequency. Those who want a more earthbound hearkening back to 1977 than George Lucas can provide might want to check out Summer of Sam, for example. The Haunting promises to supply old-fashioned scares with updated technology, while 60s psychedelia gets a groovy high-tech polish in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Those looking for an expensive, digitally souped-up film event without a colon in the title should line up for The Wild, Wild West, another 90s version of a 60s artifact.
Obviously, nostalgia is one throughline here. Only Run Lola Run, which should give art-house audiences a kinetic kick, seems wholly of the moment. As always, LD comes up with the stories for the film issue and then notices common themes. We didn't intend for this to be the year of the German DP (Ellen Kuras being the sole exception); it just worked out that way. On a basic level, however, many of our stories are about an elemental movie quality: the tension between movement and light.