Why should the Christmas season get all the fun of a good gift guide? Summer has plenty of occasions just right for a thoughtful present. Graduations! Father’s Day! Summer birthdays! Midsommar! (Can we interest you in a nice flower crown?) If you’re looking to buy a loved one — or yourself — a little treat this summer, here’s what we here at Vulture will be adding to cart in the next few months.
Apparel and Accessories
A24 Sweatpants
The sun is out and so is the pollen. Those of us who’d rather stay inside and blast the A/C can stay comfy-cozy in A24’s sweatpants with a classy spelled-out logo down the leg. A drawstring hoodie ($75) completes the ensemble. —Emily Palmer Heller
AMC A-Lister Hat
It’s the perfect hat to wear when you’re walking from the Glendale Galleria to the AMC at the Americana. If you have an AMC A-Lister in your life, you know they find any excuse to talk about the perks of membership, like being able to see four (formerly three) movies a week. It’s the best way for them to get right into their sales pitch and grow their A-List entourage. —Alejandra Gularte
Male Friendship Hat
The thing about friendship is that it’s better with hats. Hats that say “FRIENDSHIP” are great. But hats that say “MALE FRIENDSHIP” are really the gift of the summer. The in-demand hat bearing a strong message (Should men have friends? Apparently!) is inspired by A24’s comedy Friendship, starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. The film is all about guys being guys, and nothing says “I’m a guy and I have friends” more than this headgear. Get it for the guy you love hanging with or just some guy you shared a cig with once. —Morgan Baila
Teenjus Tee
Danny McBride’s underrated HBO comedy The Righteous Gemstones is coming to an end after four seasons, but Uncle Baby Billy — and the glorious insanity with which Walton Goggins plays him — can live forever in your wardrobe. —Roxana Hadadi
Blu-Rays, DVDs, and Books
Jet Li Collection
As part of its larger acquisition of a tranche of Hong Kong cinema classics earlier this year, the genre distributor Shout! Studios is putting out a handsome new boxed set honoring martial-arts legend Jet Li. Included are Fist of Legend, Tai Chi Master, Fong Sai Yuk, Fong Sai Yuk II, and The Bodyguard From Beijing, all presented in pristine 4K. While he may be best known in the U.S. for films like Hero, The Expendables, and Romeo Must Die, these were some of the movies — along with the Once Upon a Time in China series — that defined Li as an action hero in the early ’90s and made his later leap to American cinemas possible. Fist of Legend and Tai Chi Master, in particular, are favorites of Keanu Reeves. Each film in the set has audio commentaries and other features, and the whole thing comes with a fun poster. —EVB
Kingdom of Heaven and A Knights Tale Box Sets
A funny thing has happened as stores like Best Buy stopped carrying physical media: Demand has only grown. We’re not quite at vinyl-boom levels yet, but the people want their fancy 4K steelbooks, and they want them now! Some of the most exciting releases this year are two medieval epics completely different in tone, but united in their stylishness and “These movies are damn good, actually” status. The director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven is one of Ridley Scott’s best films, period, and the anachronisms of A Knight’s Tale only make it more charming. Grab them while you can so that you never again have to deal with streaming scarcity. — RH
Nasu: Summer In Andalusia
Though it wasn’t actually produced by Studio Ghibli, in a way, this short film — which is probably, by default, the greatest animated film about the sport of cycling ever made? — is sort of a product of it. While working at Ghibli as one of the studio’s supervising animation directors, Kitarō Kōsaka got the idea to adapt a cycling manga recommended to him by Hayao Miyazaki. Between his feature work with Ghibli, he made Nasu his first credited gig as the director (as in, the big job) on a standalone film. And what a movie: It’s a 47-minute tour across a lovingly animated Spanish countryside following an intrepid hero, Pepe, who pedals and reflects on his family, his ex, and his sponsors (who want to fire him, the jerks) as the Vuelta a España carries him through his hometown. We’re rooting for you, Pepe. —EVB
Richard Pryor Box Set
Before every stand-up in Brooklyn was workshopping a sophomoric one-person show about their trauma, and before the phrase “comedy equals tragedy plus time” became a cliché repeated ad nauseum by pseudo-intellectuals, there was Richard Pryor. Pryor was a savant at polishing his challenging circumstances and debilitating neuroses into crowd-pleasing material, and this is broadly how he’s remembered in comedy history. But so often people neglect to mention the tremendous silliness and penchant for character work that animated his comedy, too. This box set, which packages seven of Pryor’s most influential works together in a stylish collection, provides a representative glimpse. Comedy famously ages poorly, but it helps when someone comes along and gives it a facelift like this. —Hershal Pandya
The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers Box Set
One the best film adaptations of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel The Three Musketeers has a shiny new Criterion release, a two-film set characteristically stuffed with documentaries and making-of featurettes, as well as an essay by film critic Stephanie Zacharek. Director Richard Lester (A Hard Day’s Night, Superman II) infuses an intoxicating levity into the action and intrigue of Dumas’ writing in both films. You may find yourself itching to jump into the screen and join the fray alongside the likes of Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, and Michael York. Each film works on its own, but you can’t really have Three without Four, which adapts the second half of the Dumas novel. They were produced as a single epic, but ultimately released six months apart, over the protests of the actors who were only contracted for one, and had to file lawsuits to get what they were owed. While there’s an undeniable sadness over the series — a third film, not included here, resulted in the death of Roy Kinnear and the end of Lester’s directing career — these two are swashbuckling classics, and must-haves for all fans of filmic swordplay and flamboyant chapeaus. En garde! —EVB
The Virgin Suicides Book
It’s been 25 years since filmmaker Sofia Coppola introduced us to her specific perspectives on femininity, infamy, and how impossibly difficult it feels to grow from a girl to a woman through her first feature film, The Virgin Suicides. Through her publishing imprint Important Flowers, Coppola revisits the film in the same-named book (not to be confused with the other same-named book by Jeffrey Eugenides that inspired the film). A collection of photographs by British fashion photographer Corinne Day, The Virgin Suicides provides a new look at the Lisbon sisters through myriad still snippets from the film’s production — cast photos, costuming details, and Coppola behind the camera. The retrospective also includes commentary from Coppola and Eugenides. “So much has been said about the girls over the years,” the film’s narrator said, and The Virgin Suicides now starts another conversation. — RH
Electronics
24” Cozyla Calendar+ Home Organizer
There’s an emerging set of products that use large touchscreens to help families get themselves in order. The Strategist touched on a couple options powered by proprietary apps that keep things orderly but limit functionality. The Cozyla is a more open alternative that enables users to arrange their screen with an array of widgets and programs from the Google Play store. That covers you for basics such as calendar and to-do lists while offering the flexibility to turn the device into a family entertainment center if so desired. If your children are going to watch YouTube Kids anyway, might as well have them do it on a screen that also lists their chores. —Neil Janowitz
Roku Streaming Stick Plus
To this day, some AirBnB TV definitely still has my Paramount+ account logged into it. You may not think you need a streaming stick; most TVs these days have streaming apps built in, and you might have an older one lying around already. But consider these new Roku ones: They’re faster and more powerful than older models and still relatively inexpensive ($40 for the 4K option), have voice control options, and you can get practically any app you want on them. They also remain the perfect travel gadget — a compact plastic thing easily thrown in a bag and pre-loaded with your favorite streaming services and logins. No need to log in at a random vacation rental, and in the worst case scenario, if you break it or forget it in a hotel room, it’s not even close to the financial hit that losing an Apple TV would be. —EVB
Home Goods
Dark Universe Mummy Plush
Universal’s Epic Universe — the first new theme park in Orlando since 1999 — is going to be crowded beyond belief during its launch summer, but you can still take part in the celebration by getting one of these cute Dark Universe plushes. They’re monsters, but cute! I know your mind is already blown, but there’s more: the stuffed animal has its own stuffed animal. They’re all really adorable, but the clear breakout is the mummy, who has wrapped up his stuffed fox toy in bandages of its own. —Bethy Squires
Hello Kitty & Dear Daniel Beach Towel
It’s the 40th anniversary of the Sanrio character ranking. The main action is between perennial favorite Cinnamonroll and dark horse/shower of hole Pompompurin. But let’s show some respect for the OG Kitty. Hello Kitty (ranked 5th at time of writing) and her significant other Dear Daniel (a lowly 28th) are the perfect pals to bring on your beach day. Isn’t her 1920’s-style bathing costume cute? —BS
Kaia Gerber Official Highlighter
These highlighters from Kaia Gerber’s book club are only $3 each. Buy a hundred and hand them out at parties. Or gift a set to your cool daughter as she heads to college. Highlighters are always useful, if only for coloring your nails in class. The point is, as far as nepo babies go, Kaia Gerber has a sense of humor about it and also was very funny in Ayo Edebiri’s Instagram comments. —BS
Sinners Fan Poster
If you were creating a movie specifically to inspire fan art, there would be far worse places to start than with a sexy gangster/vampire concept. That (presumably) wasn’t Ryan Coogler’s priority when he produced Sinners, but it has nevertheless been one of the notable outcomes of the movie’s success. One great example is this poster from artist Shawn Mansfield, with its classic style and a composition that packs in details without overwhelming. If you want to check out more great work from fans, Hailee Steinfeld has been sharing art that catches her eye in her Instagram stories. -NJ
The White Lotus Blender Dupe
The particular Bosch blender used on The White Lotus is exclusive to certain Asian markets (we checked), but this Ninja high speed blender can handle any poison seeds you got. Pina coladas, anyone? —BS
Weighted Blanket from Woven Woven
Anyone who’s questioning why a weighted blanket is on a summer gift guide has clearly never enjoyed the pleasures of cozying up on a cool August evening. These blankets from Australian brand Woven Woven are listed as a kids product (they come in ~3.3 and ~4.85 lbs varieties), but grown-ups will find plenty to like themselves: the blankets add weight without creating too much heat, making them perfect for settling in with a summer blockbuster on the couch or finishing your beach read on the deck during sunset. —NJ
