If you went to summer camp, it probably holds an untouchable place in your mental archive of formative early freedoms. If you didn鈥檛 go to summer camp, you probably still have an automatic nostalgic听response to movies that try to capture that nexus of hormones and hijinks in the great outdoors.
Camp movies peaked in 1993, the year of and . Some are distinctly terrible鈥攜ou can go ahead and skip 鈥攂ut most tap into the bug-bitten memories听of being in the woods with your best friends, sure that you鈥檙e smarter than the grown-ups, gearing up for adventure. According to our very scientific, academically validated methods, these are the best of the best.
鈥榃et Hot American Summer鈥
covers just about every element of summer-camp greatness: color wars, cool kids, love triangles, talent shows, a nearly tragic river trip, the smelly kid, and the lovelorn camp director all packed into the pressure cooker of the last day at Camp Firewood. It鈥檚 hard to decide what鈥檚 better, the hilariously off-kilter script听or the all-start cast (Amy Pohler, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd)听shoehorned into some of their weirdest, funniest roles just before they got too famous to go to camp.
鈥楳oonrise Kingdom鈥
The love story at the heart of Wes Anderson鈥檚 is peak camp. Sam and Suzy, both 12-year-olds living on the fictional island of New Penzance, agree to run away together to a wild cove. Suzy sneaks away from home, and Sam sneaks away from Camp Ivanhoe, so they spend much of the movie pursued by scouts in khakis and grown-ups who just don鈥檛 understand. It鈥檚 full of nervous preteen tingles, timeless wistfulness, and Anderson鈥檚 color-soaked, emotionally layered style.
鈥楥amp Nowhere鈥
In what might be the most ever, a group of kids whose parents are planning to ship them off to a variety of camps they don鈥檛 want to attend (computer, theater, etc.) turn an abandoned hippie commune into the summer kid paradise of their dreams, complete with junk food and waterslides. They pull in their questionably moral theater teacher, played by Christopher Lloyd, to masquerade as a decoy camp director and con all their parents into forking over cash. Because they are teens with Disney-backed lessons to learn, their sham is eventually uncovered, but not before the glory of adult-free, summer utopia comes true for a while.
鈥楶arent Trap鈥
A tale as old as time: two identical girls meet at summer camp, realize they鈥檙e twins, and vow to get their odd-couple parents back together through a sneaky series of chance encounters (the truth, somehow, never seems to be particularly relevant in camp movies). Take your pick of the 1961 Hayley Mills , where some very effective split-screen use allows Mills to get in a food fight with herself, or the , which cemented peanut butter and Oreos as perfect camp food and is on par with her finest work, Mean Girls. The Olsen twins鈥 1995 knockoff听It Takes Two听has its merits, too.
鈥楳别补迟产补濒濒蝉鈥
The film that launched Bill Murray to Bill Murraydom, is a low-rent Canadian production that perfectly encapsulates all the tropes of summer camp. Murray plays the head of a group of counselors-in-training as they chase romance, execute practical jokes, find their sense of self, and beat the snot out of the dang cake eaters at the nearby rich-kid camp. It鈥檚 pretty much antics all the way through, and isn鈥檛 that how we all want to remember our camp days?
鈥楬别补惫测飞别颈驳丑迟蝉鈥
is the ultimate underdog tale and features Ben Stiller in arguably his best villain role as Tony Perkis, the fitness-obsessed heir to Camp Hope, who tries to torture campers into losing weight so he can shoot an infomercial. They buck his power, ensnaring him in a trap on a death-march hike, taking over camp, and eventually showing their parents that losing weight isn鈥檛 everything (this is a Disney movie, after all). But the moralizing is directed by Steve Brill of The听Mighty Ducks fame and written by Judd Aptow, so it鈥檚 a charming, goofy pratfall of a movie听and one that cemented the 鈥淪eymour Butts鈥 prank call into the teen-film canon.