9 Scorching Films to Help Survive the Hellish Heat Wave of 2011

4. Heatwave (1982)

Travel with me to Kings Cross, Sydney, 1981, when a scorching Christmas season is interrupted by a developer's decidedly unfestive plans to replace a dingy clot of tenements with his upscale new complex called Eden. Enter a very young Judy Davis, whose radical activism (and sure, her supple, fiery, shrimp-throwing Aussie appeal) catches the eye of one of the project's developers -- and spurs an epidemic of malfeasance ripped right from the Australian headlines. I last saw this on cable years ago (and can't vouch for its availability on DVD), but director Phillip Noyce's depictions of oppressive urban heat -- particularly as endured by squatters in the still-iffy Kings Cross district -- would stick with anyone. The bad news: There's no evidence of the film on YouTube, either! Can I interest you in The Jam covering Martha and the Vandellas' "Heat Wave" on American Bandstand? I thought so!

5. Do the Right Thing (1989)

Compared to what would follow in his own career (see below), Spike Lee's Oscar-nominated third film plays like a weird kind of paean to the worst everything summer can throw at a neighborhood in a single day. There's romance (Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee are priceless, as is a particularly well-placed ice-cube on Rosie Perez's anatomy) camaraderie (two words: Robin Harris), bracing episodes of family bonding Annnnd of course there's a deadly race riot, too, but hey. Can't win 'em all. D, motherfucker, D! (Clip NSFW)

6. Barton Fink (1990)

The titular playwright thought he had it good by going to Hollywood from New York to write pictures for mogul Jack Lipnik (played by Michael Lerner, also withering). Instead, he leapt from the crucible of East Coast cafe society into the cauldron of West Coast megalomania, penned in a furnace of hotel that could very well be (hint: is) hell with a sweaty neighbor (John Goodman) who could be (hint: is) the devil incarnate. Perfect for the dogged A/C holdout in your life, unless it's you, in which case what is wrong with you? (Clip NSFW)

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