If you've never thought about camp before, here's a quick calibration exercise. Think of Cher's outfit at the 1986 Oscars. Think of a velvet painting of Elvis. Think of The Fifth Element. Think of any John Waters movie. Think of the way Nicolas Cage acts in literally everything. That feeling? That's camp.
Professional wrestling is camp. A $400 candle shaped like a Greek god? Camp. A Christmas sweater with working LED lights? Extremely camp.
Now think of a Terrence Malick film. Think of a Patagonia vest. Think of someone saying "we should circle back on that." Think of a podcast called The Quiet Part. Not camp. The opposite of camp. Camp's natural enemy. Wes Anderson is on the border and we will be litigating this at the Grand Budapest screening specifically.
Camp is style turned up past the point of reason, committed to so fully that it becomes its own kind of beauty. It's not "so bad it's good" (that's something else). It's so much it's transcendent.
One more thing: camp and queerness have a long shared history, but they're not interchangeable. Lots of queer art is quiet, restrained, devastating. Lots of camp is straight people going absolutely buckwild with sequins. If you want a really good guide to the queer side of film specifically, my friend Kyle Turner wrote The Queer Film Guide and it's one of the best books on the subject.
Every film in this series goes all the way. They're too beautiful, too loud, too earnest, maybe over designed. But, they know what they are.
There's nowhere else I'd host my little movie camp. I am literally paying them for the privilege. The New Parkway is a little bit scrappy, totally charming, and genuinely weird in the best way. You'll watch these enormous, over-the-top films from a thrift-store loveseat with a local IPA and mac and cheese delivered to your seat.
They just ran a Kickstarter to rebuild their reserves, make the theater more accessible, and invest in their staff. They're 13 years old and just getting started. This is the kind of place that makes Oakland feel like Oakland. They also have the best trivia night in the Bay Area — I say this as someone whose team has won free movie tokens almost every time we've played.
The New Parkway pays every staff member a living wage with profit sharing. They go out of their way to employ young people, single parents, and anyone who might have a hard time finding work elsewhere. So when you come: buy a beer, order the mac and cheese, get a second beer, and tip generously.
Eat, drink, and tip like you mean it.