SUMMER CAMP!
"The essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration." - Susan Sontag
Wild and fun films that are over the top and perfect for summer!
PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE 1974
After record producer Swan (Paul Williams) steals the music of songwriter Winslow Leach (William Finley) and gives it to one of his bands, Leach sneaks into Swan's offices. Catching Leach, Swan frames him for dealing drugs, which lands him in prison. After Leach breaks out and again attempts to sabotage Swan's empire, an accident crushes his face. Leach then dons a costume and becomes the Phantom, intent on ruining Swan while saving singer Phoenix (Jessica Harper) from a terrible fate.
Saturday, July 2
Saturday, July 2
Director: Brian De Palma
Starring: Paul Williams, William Finley, Jessica Harper.
Runtime: 91 min.
Sunday, July 2
BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER 1999
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) considers herself a typical American girl. She excels in school and cheerleading, and she has a handsome football-playing boyfriend, even though she isn't that crazy about him. So she's stunned when her parents decide she's gay and send her to True Directions, a boot camp meant to alter her sexual orientation. While there, Megan meets a rebellious and unashamed teen lesbian, Graham (Clea DuVall). Though Megan still feels confused, she starts to have feelings for Graham.
Saturday, July 9
Saturday, July 9
Director: Jamie Babbit
Starring: Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, RuPaul.
Runtime: 85 min.
Sunday, July 10
THE LOVE WITCH 2016
Elaine, a beautiful young witch, is determined to find a man to love her. In her gothic Victorian apartment she makes spells and potions, and then picks up men and seduces them. However, her spells work too well, leaving her with a string of hapless victims. When she finally meets the man of her dreams, her desperation to be loved will drive her to the brink of insanity and murder.
With a visual style that pays tribute to Technicolor thrillers of the ‘60s, THE LOVE WITCH explores female fantasy and the repercussions of pathological narcissism.
Saturday, July 10
Director: Anna Biller
Starring: Samantha Robinson, Laura Waddell, Jefferey Vincent Perise.
Runtime: 120 min.
Saturday, July 10
Sunday, July 11
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF
A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN 1988
Melding melodrama with screwball farce, this Academy Award–nominated black comedy was Pedro Almodóvar’s international breakthrough and secured his place at the vanguard of modern Spanish cinema. Continuing the auteur’s exploration of the female psyche, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown tells the story of Pepa—played by the director’s frequent collaborator Carmen Maura—who resolves to kill herself with a batch of sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho after her lover leaves her. Fortunately, she is interrupted by a deliciously chaotic series of events. The filmmaker channeled Hollywood inspiration into his own unique vision, arriving at the irreverent humor and vibrant visual sense that define his work today. With an exceptional ensemble cast that also includes Antonio Banderas and Rossy de Palma, this film shows an artist in total control of his craft.
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Rossy de Palma.
Runtime: 88 min.
Saturday, July 23
Saturday, July 23
Sunday, July 24
MULTIPLE MANIACS 1970
John Waters’ gloriously grotesque second feature is replete with all manner of depravity, from robbery to murder to one of cinema’s most memorably blasphemous moments. Made on a shoestring budget in Waters’ native Baltimore, with the filmmaker taking on nearly every technical task, this gleeful mockery of the peace-and-love ethos of its era features the Cavalcade of Perversion, a traveling show mounted by a troupe of misfits whose shocking proclivities are topped only by those of their leader: the glammer-than-glam, larger-than-life Divine, out for blood after discovering her lover’s affair. Starring members of Waters’ beloved regular cast, the Dreamlanders (including David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, Edith Massey, George Figgs, and Cookie Mueller), Multiple Maniacs is an anarchic masterwork from an artist who has doggedly tested the limits of good taste for decades.
Saturday, July 30
Director: John Waters
Starring: Divine, David Lochary, Edith Massey.
Runtime: 91 min.