Call Me By Your Name (2017). What do viewers want more: A cool summer in northern Italy in 1983? A rambling old house where Nonnas do the cooking and chores? Being young and in love with a very attractive graduate student who’s been invited to stay? Luca Guadagnino packs all of the above, plus languid screenplay (and a peach) in a movie that really is one big summer sigh.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021). Our hero, Mark, is stuck in kind of a Groundhog Day situation: The same day plays on repeat. He finds Margaret, and discovers that she’s caught in an infinite loop of her own. They set out to create their version of a perfect summer day, frolicking by the pool and falling in love. But Mark finds out that Margaret is hiding something from him. She may know how to break the spell. Is it worth it?

Bombay Summer (2009). Mumbai, summer 2009. Wealthy couple Geetha and Jaidev befriend a cash-strapped charmer Madan, and in an adventurous mood, follow him deeper into the nooks and corners of the city. Director Joseph Matthew Varghese’s cinematography captures the beauty of half-constructed facades and decaying buildings in the big city, against which the love triangle between the three main characters plays out.

Summer with Monika (1953). Tired of her alcoholic father’s outbursts, Monika, a free-spirited young woman, asks Harry, a clerk whom she’d met earlier in the day, to run away with her. They steal Harry’s father’s boat and end up in the idyllic Stockholm Archipelago, where they spend the summer embroiled in a passionate romance. But, like a nice summer, how long can it last, really?

Before Sunrise (1995). It’s been setting Europe-vacation goals for nearly three decades. Two strangers, Frenchwoman Celine and American Jesse, meet on a train headed from Budapest to Paris. They spontaneously decide to get off at Vienna and wander the city, and end up falling for each other over 24 hours. Director Richard Linklater can make anything seem intimate, even a crowded bridge.

Someone Great (2019). Music journalist Jenny gets dumped by her boyfriend of nine years, just as she’s landed her dream job at Rolling Stone. Her best friends, Erin and Blair, convince her to shake off her blues and go on a last romp through New York before she leaves for her job in San Francisco. Along the way, she finds out that maybe, the break-up was for the best.

Little Forest: Summer/Autumn (2014). Based on a bestselling manga series, this slice-of-life movie is a story of slowing down and moving back to where it all began. Ichiko moves back to the mountains and valleys of Komori in Japan, where she picks fruit, tills the land, and regains her zest for living. So much good food. So simply enjoyed. There’s also a Winter/Spring version.

Aftersun (2022). Because some summers are best enjoyed in retrospect. Charlotte Wells’s film centres on Sophie, reflects on a 20-year-old holiday she took with her father when she was just 11. It was a rare break, she was just on the brink of adolescence, dad was loving but had a lot going on. The memories help her understand the man she only knew as a parent, perhaps they might also help her grieve and grow up.

Along for the Ride (2022). In the sleepy seaside town of Colby, high-school graduate Auden meets the mysterious Eli, who’s as much an insomniac as she is. The two spend the summer engaged in nighttime adventures, in brightly lit shacks, laundromats, and Insta-perfect cafes. Auden has never felt so carefree. All the while, though, she’s preparing for the inevitable reality: To leave Colby—and Eli—behind, and head to college.

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (2005). Four best friends decide to mail one pair of jeans to each other through the summer they’re apart. The jeans mysteriously fit all of them — and causes each young girl to experience a series of inexplicable, serendipitous events. Summer seems safe, wholesome and, without cell phones and trolls, build up a fantasy friendship in itself.

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