Theater Camp
Theater Camp
Starring Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro
Directed by Molly Gordon & Nick Lieberman
Joan Rubinsky (Amy Sedaris) owns a summer theater camp in the Adirondacks called AdirondACTS, and she recruits kids throughout the school year to attend. During one school production, however, she falls into a coma after suffering a seizure due to flashing lights, and her dude-bro son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) is tasked with running the camp for the summer. He finds out that the camp is in financial ruin and the neighboring wealthy theater camp wants to buy it and add it to their acreage, but he tries to find a way to make some more money to keep that from happening, while trying to understand the quirky kids that are attending.
Meanwhile the teachers of the camp plan on putting on a big production for the finale - an original script honoring their leader Joan called "Still, Joan." Co-written by close friends Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon) and Amos Klobuchar (Ben Platt), the two painstakingly work to make the production a success, but when Rebecca-Diane receives an offer to perform on a cruise ship, their friendship - as well as the entire production - is put to the test.
The Good:
You can sense the heart at the center of "Theater Camp," and that comes from the group of Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin and co-director Nick Lieberman, who, during COVID, put together an 18-minute short film on YouTube that serves as the basis for "Theater Camp." The short was a huge success and the feature film received the green light to be completed. It's a passion project for the four friends, and there's that sense throughout the film. It wasn't done to become a blockbuster, but to show audiences an exaggerated look into the lives of those who, despite having a voice on the stage, often find their voices silenced in the real world.
There are some jokes that really hit well, and those are the ones that were delivered by my favorite method: deadpan humor. You can't tell if they're joking or not, and it's what makes them so funny. Sadly there's not a lot of that here.
The final production of "Still, Joan" is actually, surprisingly good. The kids do a great job performing, the original song is - for all its quirks - catchy, and it brought me back to opening night productions we did in high school.
The chemistry between the actors is real, and you feel like they really enjoy what they're doing. Most notably Molly Gordon and Ben Platt (who've been friends for years, and we even see them as children acting together in pictures) hold a deep friendship that oozes on the screen. When their friendship is tested you feel the emotion between them, and it makes you think of the time you and your former best friend fell through. They did a great job. As did Jimmy Tatro as the knucklehead dude-bro stuck with running a camp to which he knows nothing about, while trying to do right by his mother.
The Bad:
The film is shot with a mockumentary style, with a film crew doing their own "film" about the camp, and the only real reason someone does this style is due to lack of funds, allowing the film to express its cheaply made premise. When it works, it works - but when it doesn't, it doesn't. "Theater Camp" doesn't work, as the film drags on, turning an 18-minute short into a 93 minute test of patience. The jokes, for the most part, fall flat, and the story is reminiscent of better movies about the underdogs coming together to save a failing event or activity they love.
Some of the jokes, in fact, are so tone deaf that they borderline worse than cruel. Talking about a young girl looking like she could be a prostitute or sex worker is entirely in bad taste, and many other jokes thrown throughout the film gets on the verge of child abuse if the children weren't actors themselves.
The Verdict:
Nothing about "Theater Camp" is special, and its flaws more than outweighs some of the small lights of genius littered throughout.
The Score: D
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