The Walleye Magazine

THE SECOND MOST PLEASURABLE THING WE DO IN THE DARK. A COLUMN ABOUT MOVIES

Sometimes it’s nice not to be special. Sometimes it’s nice to listen to whatever everyone else listens to. Just to be normal for once. - Vlad (Daniel Letterle) in Camp

By Michael Sobota

THE SECOND MOST PLEASURABLE THING WE DO IN THE DARK. A COLUMN ABOUT MOVIES

Camping is about getting away from it all—or at least getting away from all normal routines. Going to camp is an adventure, a journey. Sometimes this is as much internal as it is external, particularly if you are a kid. There are all sorts of ways to camp. You might jump in your camper van and go cross-country. You might grab your sleeping bag and a tent and go off into the bush. You might rent a summer cabin, sort of a second home. The movies have covered just about every sort of camping story. Here are four of the very best, including a classic comedy. And because June is also Pride Month, I am including two that add an extra layered meaning to camp.

The Long, Long Trailer (1954)

This classic screwball comedy, co-written by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich and directed by the esteemed Vincente Minnelli, contains one of the best lines about giving directions ever to be written. Tacy (Lucille Ball) tells her husband Nicky (Desi Arnaz) to “turn right here,” which he promptly does. Only she didn’t get to finish her sentence; what she intended to tell him was “turn right here left.” Tacy and Nicky have just gotten married and instead of buying a house, they buy an enormous, long, modern (for 1954) trailer and go off on their honeymoon, traveling around the continental U.S. The moment when Tacy gives her misunderstood direction leads them into deep trouble, as does just about every mile they travel. The script is corny but most of the comedy is physical slapstick, all performed with perfect timing by this real-life husband and wife.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

Director and screenwriter Stephan Elliott takes three friends, puts them on a bus in Sydney, Australia, and takes them cross-country on an adventure like no other. The friends are Tick (Hugo Weaving), Adam (Guy Pierce), and Bernadette (Terence Stamp), a trans woman. And Tick and Adam are actually Mitzi and Felicia in their drag personas. The trip they are on will lead them into the centre of Australia, to a city called Alice Springs. Just before leaving Sydney, they christen the bus “Priscilla.” Tick has arranged several weeks of stage performing, with equity scale pay and hotel included. But first they have to get there. And that’s where most of the comedy lies. The script is laced with witty, bitchy camp comedy and some startling visuals as well. And Tick has a secret that will be revealed that deepens the story and makes it very human, very ordinary, and very satisfying.

Camp (2003)

This is about a musical theatre summer camp—one of those educational camps that parents send their kids to with hopes of some quiet time back home. Written and directed by Todd Graff, and cast with a supremely talented ensemble of unknown young actors, this is a fun, silly, and sometimes profound story about growing up. Theatre kids always seem to be a little bit more in everything, including competitiveness. The comedy derives from their desperate camp director and their personal relationships as they learn about growing up while simultaneously moving toward that big, final musical production at the end of summer. And who should show up to that event? Spoiler alert: it is just about every musical theatre kid’s theatre dream, Stephen Sondheim.

The Kings of Summer (2013)

I am revisiting probably my favourite summer movie. Jordan Vogt-Roberts directs a script by Chris Galletta in a poignant summer coming-of-age story. Three teenage boys decide to flee their parents and homes and spend the summer in the woods—only they are not tenting. They build a makeshift cabin from scrap and salvage lumber with the intention to go “totally offgrid.” You know, candles and food cooked over a fire. Joe (Nick Robinson), Patrick (Gabriel Basso), and Biaggio (Moises Arias) are an odd trio of forest musketeers. But Galletta’s script takes care to give them clear backstories and attractive, three-dimensional qualities. We come to like them and care about what happens to them—even when they cheat with trips into town for fastfood meals. The highlight of the film is when the boys burst into a spontaneous percussion concerto on a fallen tree deep in the woods. The climax of the story involves a poisonous snake, with the inevitable layers of self-maturation.

And here are six more movies that can make you a happy camper this summer: SpaceCamp (1986), Heavyweights (1995), Wet Hot American Summer (2001, the original), Without a Paddle (2004), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and Tracks (2013).

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2021-06-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

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