Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess star in Upside Down as two young people who fall in love. However they must be kept apart because he’s ordinary and not upside down. Poor fella. The heart wants what the heart wants. Guess you can say that he’s head over heels in love.

Question: When it rains in the inverted world and the ground gets really wet, do the corpses fall out of their graves and rain on the right side up world? Because that’s gross.

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland

Synopsis: Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide into the Earth.

Release Date: May 26, 2011

It's The End Of The World As We Know It In 'Melancholia' Trailer

Even more than the last trailer, this one shows the movie’s gorgeous cinematography and allows you to see a little more of the celestial action in the movie, about a second planet (named “Melancholia“) crashing into our planet (named “Earth“). It also begins with the inspiring words “we are alone, there is only life on Earth.” A happy thought to kick off your long weekend with!

The American Pie sequels

It may seem obvious, but the best way to get your fix of summer movies like American Pie is to go straight to the source. That is, check out the sequels. Both of the sequels in the “official series,” American Pie 2 and American Wedding, have the same sensibility as the first American Pie movie (duh), and they were released in the summer too. Why settle for an imitation when you can get authentic-Jason-Biggs-sexually-humiliating-himself action?

Clueless

Alicia Silverstone getting mugged in Clueless

While it may not have the same level of raunchiness as American Pie, Clueless qualifies due to their similarly comedic approaches to life as an American teenager. If you’re looking for scenes of apple pies getting penetrated, look elsewhere. But if you just want to laugh at teenagers in a sunny outdoor milieu—i.e. teenagers being stupid in Southern California—you’ve come to the right place!

Bring It On

Kirsten Dunst's "naked" dream in Bring It On

Hey, not all summer movies like American Pie are masterpieces. But Bring It On is high school movie that came out in the summer—what else do you want? Bring It On is a little more by-the-book than American Pie, focusing on a climactic cheer leading competition and all, but it still shares a certain sensibility with it—which is again, laughing at teenagers as they struggle with their “problems”. It also follows in the grand American Pie tradition of having a ton of direct-to-video sequels that have almost nothing to do with the original. Not to mention, it features Hottie McHotkins (AKA Eliza Dusku) and Kirsten Dunst back when she was still cute.

Superbad

McLovin' dancing in Superbad

Finally, a summer movie like American Pie that actually comes close to matching its raunchiness factor. In the language-and-crudely-drawn-penises department, anyway. Its plot, involving two teenagers on a mad quest to get laid makes it similar to American Pie, and as an added bonus, most would agree that Superbad is a funnier, better, and more authentic depiction of teenage life than American Pie. So what we’re really trying to say is that what you should be looking for is “summer movies like Superbad.”

The House Bunny

Girls post makeover in House Bunny

If this list is any indication, a good chunk of summer movies like American Pie are targeted at the fairer sex. The House Bunny is no different, featuring Anna Farris as a former Playboy bunny who becomes a sorority house mother. And unlike a lot of teen  comedies, it actually got a fair amount of critical praise, albeit praise that singled out Anna Farris’ performance as being somewhat too good for the material. Still, it counts.

Your search for summer movies like American Pie might last until your dying breath, but this list should make your quest a little easier. If nothing else, the movies on this list will make remembering YOUR awkward teenage years that much easier/funnier. And if you’re still in your teenage years now, uh, sorry?

“For a long time I was a Jew and I was happy to be a Jew, then I met Susanne Bier [fellow Danish director and this year's Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film] and I wasn’t so happy. But then I found out I was actually a Nazi. My family was German. That also gave me pleasure. What can I say? I understand Hitler. I sympathize with him a bit. I don’t mean I’m in favor of World War II and I’m not against Jews, not even Susanne Bier. In fact I’m very much in favor of them. All Jews. Well, Israel is a pain in the ass [pause] … How can I get out of this sentence? OK, I’m a Nazi.”

This caused the predictable uproar, with the heads of the Cannes Film Festival demanding an explanation. So, in probably the most surprising development of this story, Von Trier has actually apologized:

“If I have hurt someone this morning by the words I said at the press conference, I sincerely apologize. I am not anti-semitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor am I a Nazi.”

Von Trier was then quoted as saying “don’t have a cow, man!” before speeding off on his skateboard. (Deadline)

Lars Von Trier‘s Antichrist follow-up, Melancholia, looks like it won’t leave you any less bummed out but it does seem like it won’t make theater-goers vomit. Which is usually a plus. The film stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg as sisters who rub one another the wrong way while a newly revealed planet barrels toward Earth on a collision course. Will this dysfunctional family collide with one another in the face of this threat? Or will they shatter to pieces?? This may be your last chance to tell Kiefer Sutherland how you really feel about him.

For a story about a crime so full of weird details, there is absolutely nothing interesting about All Good Things. It’s just an episode of Unsolved Mysteries only they tricked some really good actors into being in it with the promise of Oscar, but Oscar will not be one of all good things that All Good Things might receive.

David Marks (Ryan Gosling) starts out as a hopeful young lad rebelling against his father, Sanford (Frank Langella). It’s one of those rich business families where the thing to do is be the same as everyone else, and David sees a better future with Katie (Kirsten Dunst). After they’re married, David returns to the family business after all and basically becomes his dad. Katie tries to get out but then disappears and no one’s been able to prove David did it.

There’s actually some good old age makeup on Gosling. I’ll give the, that. Gosling is so method he probably just aged 20 years for the role. The story he’s telling via flashback is still weak.

The Marks family story is just a middling collection of stifled ambitions. There are a lot of appalling events, but none are given any impact. It’s just a collection of detached moments. The young Marks’s are struggling, there’s family pressure, David starts living by other people’s rules, they do drugs in the ‘70s, there’s abortion and suicide. There’s no drama about it though.

These are the signature cues of abuse that are supposed to automatically generate sympathy, but it’s cheap. Especially cheap since some poor woman actually went through this. I hate movies about joyless people middling through mediocrity. At least most abusers revel in it so there’s some drama.

The crime is barely established. The Marks business seems to involve shady real estate but it doesn’t seem really significant. They make real estate deals, they pressure tenants for money but the Marks family doesn’t make any impression outside of this small world.

The film sets up as much fake suspense as it can too. Katie bends down to reveal David is standing behind her, but this isn’t the scene where he kills her so that’s not scary. She’s not even at risk in this scene, they’re just pretending she is.

David goes way off the rails about 20 minutes from the end, but even then the film generates no drama from his extreme behavior. He’s just moping through scenes with a slightly more extreme affect, but it seems more like an exercise than a character departure. Supporting characters like Deborah Lehrman (Lily Rabe) pop in to act outrageous by saying motherf*cker and exaggerating their conversation. That is also weak.

It’s just so surprising that all these elements make a weak film. The story seems meaty. The roles seem meaty. They talent involved sure have the chops. It’s got to be the writing (Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling) and directing (Andrew Jarecki) then, right? I guess it takes more than a good story to tell a good story.

Director: Sam Raimi

Cast: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Dylan Baker, Bruce Campbell

Synopsis: TBD