‘PTP’: Summer Memories

May 29th, 2025

I’ve been out of school for a long time — a very long time — but I still maintain that there’s no better feeling in this world than when the final bell rings on the last day of school.

Hello, this is Christine Burright, a graduate of the UNO MFA in screenwriting program, filmmaker, and aspiring TV writer, for Pass the Popcorn for KVNO’s Arts Today.

Picture it: It’s late May, you just emptied your locker contents into a trash can, you’re leaving school for the last time until Fall, your friends have pooled together $3 for gas and you don’t know where you’re going, but it doesn’t matter.

While we may have aged out of our school-break summertimes, we’ll never age out of watching a school-break summertime movie. In fact, one movie exists that might hit closer to home than you’d expect.

I’m not sure I’ve met a single adult who still doesn’t pine for the summer days of their youth — perhaps especially so for the summer days of their teen years.

My epic teenage summers consisted of:

Waking up no earlier than 10 am,

Watching MTV’s summer beach house and wishing I lived anywhere near a beach,

Driving around in cars that have either spotty or nonexistent air conditioning,

Two-dollar Taco Bell runs at midnight,

And of course, the general aura of being 100% without any major responsibility.

Maybe your summer checklist isn’t exactly the same, but I’m betting it trends in the same general direction.

If you’re looking to indulge in some summertime reminiscing, might I suggest checking out Snack Shack. Perhaps you caught it when it had its theatrical release last year? Or maybe it’s new to you. Either way, it’s definitely worth revisiting this summer.

Set in 1991, Snack Shack is the story of two 14-year-old best friends who get the chance to run their town’s swimming pool snack shack. Their small enterprise turns into an adventure of summertime fun, discovery and romance when the new girl in town joins the pool as a lifeguard.

Now, the extra special thing about Snack Shack is that it is set in Nebraska City. The semi-autobiographical flick was filmed over six weeks in the summer of 2022.

Writer and director Adam Rehmeier said it was special to film on the street where he grew up, and of course, at the film’s main location, the Steinhart Aquatic Center.

For me, Snack Shack checks all the boxes for what you want in a summertime movie. The days feel hot and the nights feel long. The characters capture both the feeling of having nowhere to go and nothing to do, while also being surrounded by endless possibilities for what might come next.

And sure, it definitely helps that the movie is filmed in Nebraska and set in the years that aligned with the years of my youth, so everything about it feels extra authentic to me.

I’m guessing it will feel that way to you, too.

Snack Shack is available to stream on a number of platforms, including Paramount, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and MGM+.

And remember to stick around for the end credits and see how many of our local faces and places you can spot. The entire movie was filmed here in our state and features countless members of our local and talented film community.

By Christine Burright for Pass the Popcorn.