Summer Films Every Older Woman Should Rewatch

My favorite scene: the fictitious band, Stillwater, is rolling down the road in their tour bus when they all start singing Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” William says to Penny: “I have to go home.” She responds, “You are home.”

My favorite quote: Lester Bangs, a real-life music journalist (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman), tells the young writer: “We’re uncool … the only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you are uncool.”

Watch this film again and remember when you were gloriously uncool and searching for your own destiny.

FlixPix / Alamy Stock Photo

Say Anything (1989): And speaking of Cameron Crowe, he wrote and directed this classic “summer-after-high school” film about the romance between a “basic” — Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) — and a “brain,” Diane Court (Ione Skye), the class valedictorian.

The “boombox scene” — when Lloyd hoists a boombox over his head outside Diane’s bedroom window and plays Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" — is one of the most recognized scenes in movies.

Why watch this film over and over? John Cusack is so darn cute, for one. And I love the last scene, when Diane asks Lloyd: “Nobody thinks it will work, do they?” Lloyd replies: “No. You just described every great success story.”

Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo

Dirty Dancing (1987): Eternal props to Patrick Swayze, playing dance instructor Johnny Castle, who thrusts his hips and struts his dangerous sex appeal to one of Hollywood’s best soundtracks.

“Baby” (Jennifer Grey) falls hard, right into Johnny’s arms, and has “the time of her life.”

Set in 1963 at a Catskills resort, Dirty Dancing takes on issues like class and social tension. But watch it again for Johnny’s hips.

Paramount Pictures/Everett Collection

Footloose (1984): You read that title and started hearing that Kenny Loggins song in your head, right? Kevin Bacon was 24 when he played Ren McCormack in this tale of a big-city boy with dancing feet who moves to a small town that bans dancing. He falls for the preacher’s daughter and turns the town upside down. You might also notice Sarah Jessica Parker, then 18, in one of her early film roles.

Grease (1978): Who can resist John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John singing “Summer Nights”? I’ve seen this movie dozens of times but simply can’t get enough of “Danny” and “Sandy” and their ’50s gang of rebels and “Pink Ladies” on the last day of high school.

Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo

American Graffiti (1973): Set on the last day of summer vacation in 1962, a group of friends cruises the streets of California while Wolfman Jack spins classic rock ’n’ roll tunes.

The soundtrack, with dozens of hits from the ’50s and ’60s, introduced me to artists like Buddy Holly, The Platters and Chuck Berry — and to a young actor named Harrison Ford and an elusive blonde in a Thunderbird played by Suzanne Somers.

This George Lucas classic pairs Ron Howard and Cindy Williams as high-school lovebirds who must part when college calls. Their storyline is the tender thread throughout the film — as sweet as their on-screen kisses. 

When Williams died at 75 in 2023, Howard recalled in People magazine how she became his on-set kissing coach, since he was 18 and nervous, and she was an experienced 24.

“She was like, ‘Here’s how we got to kiss for the camera. Here’s what we have to do.’”

Maybe their smooches were awkward, like mine were in 1969. Still, the memory of each one is worth a sigh, and a reminder of how fast time goes by.

It’s those innocent moments that keep us connected to our youth — and hopelessly devoted to summer movies.