In January 2025, while evacuating her home during the Palisades fires, director Tamra Davis found a box of videotapes she shot in 1995 on the Summersault tour, an Australian festival that brought together Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Rancid, Beck, The Amps, and Bikini Kill at the height of their alt-rock moment. Newly married to Beastie Boy Mike D, Davis had full access everywhere and her camera caught it all: blistering performances, backstage banter, candid interviews conducted by Kathleen Hanna, and all the unguarded moments that don't survive in the age of smartphones.

What makes The Best Summer more than a nostalgia trip is how alive these musicians feel in Davis' footage before their fame kicked in. Kim Gordon tours with her toddler, Coco. Dave Grohl talks about the books he's reading. Kathleen Hanna and Ad-Rock fall in love on camera. Adam Yauch is in the prime of his life. Davis and editor Jessica Hernandez assemble it all into something loose and quietly devastating, a 30-year-old home movie that doubles as a portrait of an irretrievable cultural moment. For anyone who grew up on this music, it plays like the rarest of concert films, a backstage pass that keeps on giving.—Jarod Neece