Happy Campers immediately recalls the illuminating 2020 Oscar-winning film, Nomadland, which earned Frances McDormand another Best Actress Oscar. With its simplistic yet effective and heartfelt storytelling, that film beautifully showcased a fringe side of American life that is not often brought to the screen. It was a story about everyday people, unfettered by societal pressures to constantly do, do, do and get, get, get. It was a story about the lives of everyday people that we can all relate to. Audiences will get another great chance to feel something similar with the great new documentary, Happy Campers.
Directed mindfully by Amy Nicholson, a New York-based filmmaker and commercial director, the filmmaker focuses her lens on the residents of a rundown trailer park in Chincoteague Island, Virginia, which is being forced to shut down for capitalistic interests. It’s a story of loss and love, past and present, and something that can’t ever be taken away: Cherished memories that fill up a person’s life.
A Director with a Sharp Eye
Amy Nicholson’s previous works — Pickle, Zipper: Coney Island’s Last Wild Ride, Muskrat Lovely — won raves for the unique way they feature the lifeblood of Americana, often with a humorous eye and a deep respect for her subjects. Happy Campers imbues those qualities and wins you over as it leaps from one set of residents to another as it chronicles the final days of the folks at Inlet View, a quirky working-class summer trailer park that became an unforgettable haven. One man stands outside his trailer and says:
All these people are from different backgrounds and different states, and they come here to socialize… come out of their shell and be human beings.
“I hate saying goodbye to all these people,” muses one resident. “It just stinks.” Another person is more candid: “We’re pissed.” But take note: This isn’t an angry film nor an overly preachy, didactic one. Nicholson isn’t overtly saying rampant capitalism is horrible. She lets us decide. And that makes this thought-provoking story all the more touching.
There’s also a pure addictive joy in watching it unfold. Nicholson is sharp and steadfast and knows when to get into a scene and when to move onto another. She also knows when to linger longer than you think is necessary because — wait for it — if you stay silent while hanging around people talking about something important in their lives, their most honest emotions inevitably come to the surface. So will yours.
Happy Campers Gets Emotional While Keeping It Simple
The film’s final third holds the most emotion because it’s here we see these residents beginning to pack up. By this point, we’ve met more than a dozen of them — single folks, married people, children. We’ve experienced them in their setting. We’ve heard their backstories. We marvel that many of them discovered the area decades ago, some as children arriving for vacations with their family. One couple arrived and always kept coming back. “Been here 21 years,” she tells us, indicating her modest but cutely decorated trailer. “It was a party trailer back then… nicotine dripping down the walls when we moved in. We cleaned it up.”
Another man reads a deceased man’s diary recounting the joys of visiting the place. It’s a simple passage that shares the man’s bittersweet feelings of having to return home after a pleasant summer at Inlet View. The man reading the diary has to put it down. At one point, a man plays his harmonica as people pack up, saying goodbye and heading on. The final shot is impactful and profoundly metaphoric, circling back to the root cause of this circumstance. It’s a way for the director to just drop the mic and move on. It’s perfection.
A Documentary After Your Own Heart
The good outweighs some creative hiccups here. Upon deeper exploration, you might find yourself wondering more about the people you’re meeting. We learn a bit here and there about what some people do in their everyday lives, but not much beyond that. There’s no, “BTW: I’m a professor at the U.” Nicholson keeps things trailer park-centric and commits to fully embedding herself within this community and learning more about why the park became such a significant part of their lives.
Between its captivating subject, artful direction, and natural ease in the way it evokes heartfelt emotions, Happy Campers is a sure-fire hit. Already an audience favorite at various film festivals, the doc deserves as many eyes as it can get on it. Keep a tissue handy. Happy Campers, playing at select theaters, arrives on VOD September 10. Find more information here.
