Embrace the last of the lazy August days with the Summer Camp Series at the Packard Campus Theater in Culpeper. Ten movies, including two double features, will celebrate all things campy throughout the latter half of the month. From summer sleep-away comedies to sci-fi schmaltz, you can get your fill of over-the-top entertainment with silver screen gems like Swept Away, the 1979 Italian romance in which a spoiled socialite and poor deckhand are—you guessed it—swept away by ocean tides and turns of affection; Space Amoebas, which features Japanese photographers trapped on a remote Pacific Island with ”giant mutant monsters created by aliens from outer space,” and The Parent Trap, Disney’s 1998 remake of the family-friendly twins-swap-places-and-parents-don’t-notice classic. Let bone-dry humor and ginormous space blobs remind you of a simpler time, when film-watching was fun and frivolous, when camp crushes and overturned canoes were the greatest of your concerns, and when Lindsey Lohan’s adorable freckly cheeks were 100 percent silicone free. Two of our favorites to cap off the season:
Meatballs
This 1979 comedy stars Bill Murray at the height of SNL cult glory as a prank-pulling, skirt-chasing camp counselor with a heart of gold. When lonely camper Rudy (Chris Makepeace) gets rejected by his popular peers, Camp North Star’s head counselor Tripper (Murray) brings him into the fold, which includes ribald pranks, wacky hijinks, and an annual competition with rival Camp Mohawk which North Star has never won—yet.
Saturday, August 10 at 7:30PM.
Cry Baby
Catch a very funny Johnny Depp in his pre-Tonto days. John Waters wrote and directed this satirical comedy musical in 1991, spoofing Grease and the greaser trope with rock-n-roll romance set in 1950s Baltimore. High school delinquent and wannabe singer Cry Baby Jones (Depp) simply “can’t help being bad” nor charming the pants off of every girl he meets, including a good girl (Amy Locane) whose boyfriend vows revenge. Keep your eyes peeled for Iggy Pop!
Saturday, August 24 at 7:30PM. Part of a Double Feature with Johnny Dangerously.