S3E33. Happy Campers (2024) dir. Amy Nicholson

The Movies

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I love the hell out of this movie. Amy Nicholson's HAPPY CAMPERS (available on VOD September 10th) sees the denizens of a waterfront Virginia RV park through the last days of their working-class summertime paradise: "The Armpit of America," as lovingly described by a couple in the film.

These folks, of different races, walks of life, even statehoods, congregate every summer under the simple banner of a good hang. They adorn their homemade RVs with homemade knick-knacks, years of accumulated junk memorializing each wondrous summer.

But it's all come to its end as the RV park is to be closed and razed for the benefit of some developers building luxury condos. And it's easy to assume this movie's a middle finger to the man and it would end with every grandpa, kid and crab holding hands (and claws) in a human chain to block bulldozers.

But Nicholson's not that kind of filmmaker nor documentarian. The mere existence of a place separate from corporate shackles, where people can let their guards down to moon a camera, where geezers try their best to floss like their Fortnite-loving grandkids, where the fireworks on the 4th of July sizzle and explode with the joy that comes with genuine freedom? That's the best kind of "fuck you" there is.

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End Music: "Tuesday's Gone" - Lynyrd Skynyrd