So hey. Is it just me, or are we having an unseasonably cold summer? I actually thought it was just me until I read some Twitter updates from friends all over the country, complaining about the wet and the cold. It’s just not right. Summer should be utterly unbearable. It should make your skin melt off. Right?

Well, in the absence of a really hot summer, it’s time to seek solace in some movies that feature the kind of heat we’re missing out on. It’s the only way. So brew up some iced tea and squeeze some fresh lemonade - next stop, the Deep South.

Black Snake Moan

You might have heard about this movie back before it came out. I know I did - the baffling (and, according to star Christina Ricci, exploitative) marketing made everyone stop and look twice. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see Samuel L. Jackson chain a girl to his radiator? It was impossible NOT to be curious.

So I headed down to check it out at my local indie theater. I was the only one in the room, save for the projectionist in the balcony above me.

And what a great movie.

I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. Black Snake Moan is an incredible story of love, redemption, and pain - and, surprisingly enough, Justin Timberlake? Good actor. I know. Believe me.

Christina Ricci’s Rae is a wild child with a dark past who uses men to overcome her feelings of anger and worthlessness. In a culture that’s all too quick to insist that it’s “judgmental” to ascribe motivations to people’s actions, I found it utterly refreshing to see a movie that suggested Rae wasn’t making the best choices. And maybe there was a better way to live.

But for our purposes, the best thing about Black Snake Moan is the backdrop. Everything is steamy and sticky and sweaty with the heat; Samuel L. Jackson’s vegetable garden is vibrant and delicious. All the best things about the heat of summer are part of the setting, which makes it the perfect movie to watch while you weather out the latest rainstorm.

Stay tuned for more summer movie suggestions!

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