What movie feels like summer to you?

Sunny skies, blue waters, a crowded beach, fireworks for the 4th of July…nothing screams summer more than these elements combined, and Jaws features them all aplenty. Are there also killer sharks terrorizing a small town called Amity Island, instilling fear in everyone except for the corrupt mayor and medical examiner? Yes. The thrill of Jaws lies in how it turns the comfortable into something unbelievably terrifying. I saw the movie as a pre-teen and I’m still extremely nervous to go swimming in water that’s not a pool. Every element of the Steven Spielberg movie is groundbreaking, not least because it became our first summer blockbuster. There’s no better way to kick off the season than watching it. And because I love the combination of horror and summer (it subverts expectations, what can I say?), my runner-up here is the slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer. [Saloni Gajjar]

I wanted to be a basic bitch and recommend Do The Right Thing because not only is that movie perfect, it is deeply and angrily sweaty. But then I thought, everyone knows that movie is sweltering, so what other movies have you turning on the A/C? This of course led me to Body Heat, Lawrence Kasdan’s excruciatingly wet erotic thriller set in the midst of an unrelenting Florida summer. Everyone is glistening, sexy, and getting played—they could’ve called this movie Wet Hot American Summer and it would’ve worked perfectly. Kathleen Turner seduces dumb-as-a-doorknob lawyer William Hurt like any good femme fatale, while a stellar supporting cast (Mickey Rourke, Ted Danson) goes over-the-top in a Floridian weirdo way. The whole thing will have you tugging at your collar, because you can feel the steam coming off of everyone’s bodies, in every sense of the phrase. As someone who spent too many summers baking on Texas asphalt, Body Heat is one of the only movies that gives me the familiar feeling of wanting to run inside and take an ice bath—entangled in a passionate crime plot or not. [Jacob Oller]

Moonrise Kingdom feels like a specific version of summer—one of those formative adolescent summers that loom larger in your memory than it ever did in real life, that one unforgettable season that we all romanticize as life-changing. That’s entirely the point of the film, of course; it’s a heartfelt ode to tween feelings, an assurance that all those intense memories are valid and cringey and beautiful. When you’re 12, everything feels like the biggest deal in the world; Moonrise Kingdom exists in a space where that might actually be true. [Jen Lennon]

Maybe it’s cheating to pick three films instead of one, but I don’t care—Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight all evoke summertime for me, in ways that are similar, yet also distinct. Richard Linklater’s trilogy is really one epic love story told in three chapters, set nine years apart. In each film we get a brief little snapshot of the lives of two characters, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy), as they wander through various European locales, navigating charming old streets and their own inexplicable connection to each other. I’ve always thought of summer as a time to travel, and these films happen to map directly onto the ways my adventures have changed through the years. From the aimless, almost dreamlike, wanderings of two college-age people who don’t quite know themselves yet in Sunrise, to the rush of cramming everything you can possibly fit into a limited span of time in Sunset, to the strained family getaway in Midnight, I’ve lived the full range of these experiences. And I can’t help but think of them every year when the weather starts turning warm and I feel that wanderlust coming on again. [Cindy White]

Though it’s not an explicit summertime film, there’s something sweaty and sticky—non-derogatory!—about Sleeping With Other People that feels right for summer. (Palm Springs is another potential candidate, both films being some of the best and most underrated rom-coms of the 21st century.) Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis have amazing chemistry, and spend the movie circling each other, falling into friendship and falling in love while roaming New York City streets that seem warm and inviting. Contemplating a scene that feels like summer, the first thing that came to mind was Lainey’s blissfully drugged-out choreography at the film’s children’s party. What’s more summery than dancing at a backyard pool party with your best friend/love of your life? (Speaking of choreo, my obvious runner-up choice is Mamma Mia.) [Mary Kate Carr]

Is High School Musical 2 the most artful choice I could have gone with for this question? No. But is it the most truthful? One hundred percent. In high school, my friends and I used to terrorize whatever teacher had the misfortune of being the last class of the year by chanting “summer… summer… SUMMER” as the clock ticked down the minutes until we could go home and immediately watch this movie. Even as an adult, I have some extremely fond memories of shivering in a still-damp bathing suit in someone’s living room, doing the entire “Bet On It” choreography (which we’ve all had memorized for years) as the movie plays in the background. And it’s not just those two songs that conjure sunscreen, melted popsicles, and the euphoric freedom of three homework-less months. For my money, Sharpay’s “Fabulous” is one of the greatest diva songs ever written. “Gotta Go My Own Way” was a legitimate heartbreaker at age 12, and I noticed the Chad/Ryan outfit swap in “I Don’t Dance” even then. For me, summer is an excuse to indulge in some dumb fun and shameless nostalgia, and High School Musical 2 has both in spades. It’s also the best film in the trilogy, and I will fight you on that. [Emma Keates]

The summer of 2007 is one that I remember being chockful of movies that I was dying to see as a kid: The Simpsons Movie, Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, Shrek The Third, Spider-Man 3. But there is only one movie from this summer that I return to over and over, for obvious reasons: Hairspray, the adaptation of the musical that was adapted from John Waters’ 1988 film. The optimism of Hairspray, embodied with boundless enthusiasm by newcomer Nikki Blonsky, is an infectious ray of sunshine. The fact that its ‘60s-inspired soundtrack recalls some of Motown’s best warm-weather songs doesn’t hurt either. To this day, the colors and the energy of Hairspray remind me of the uncomplicated summers of being a kid—I can’t help but smile. [Drew Gillis]

When I was a teen, I never went on a road trip like the two best friends (played with perfect bratty bravado by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna) at the center of Alfonso Cuarón’s sun-kissed, sex-driven masterpiece Y Tu Mamá También. But there is something in this tale of the duo taking—or is it tricking?—a gorgeous older woman (Maribel Verdú’s Luisa) to a beach that doesn’t exist (a brilliant metaphor if there ever was one) that hits home, namely in how beautifully stupid, freewheeling, happy, annoying, and cocky the pair is. Life, as we see in the film’s ending, would indeed suck that spirit out of them. To quote the great Jonathan Richman: “That summer feeling will come to haunt you one day in your life.” [Tim Lowery]