'Theater Camp' A Review

Theater Camp is a comedy mocumentary about an upstate New York theater camp. The movie opens with the camp owner Joan(Amy Sedaris) preparing for the upcoming season and attending one of her camper's school productions during which she goes into a coma. Her son Troy(Jimmy Tatro of American Vandal fame) takes over and struggles to acclimate to being in charge both with the theater kids and staff as well as financially. Life at the camp unfolds with the two main plot lines being the financial problems of the camp as well as the production of the original musical Joan: Still co-directed by acting and music counselors Rebecca-Diane(Molly Gordon, also co-writer and co-director) and Amos(Ben Platt, also co-writer).

Overall the cast is impressive particularly the kids, all presumably theater kids in real life, and they really go for it and many have substantial talent. There's a lot of laughs as a result but also some genuinely good performances both within the context of the film and the various scenes the kids perform. Sedaris is wonderful but her appearance is brief, Tatro is underutilized slotted in a bizarre way as the straight man which kind of hamstrings him. Gordon and Platt are great but their will-they-won't-they friendship storyline mostly distracts from what's great about this- theater kids at an objectively great and hilarious theater camp. But the real star is Glenn the tech counselor who just happens to be a stunning performer played by Noah Galvin, he's an absolute stunner. Taken all together its a great ensemble but too much of the script is distracted by manufactured conflict, you can almost hear a studio exec or one of the co-writers saying - "something has to happen"- but the reality is the best parts of the film are when we see the kids in classes, just going about their time at the camp, and the kids actually performing. There is a reference to them putting on The Crucible Jr. but bafflingly we never see it.

Visually the film has the hand-held shaky feel of a documentary but there is really no direct address by the actors, no confessionals, no interviews and the only indication that this is supposed to be a documentary is through title cards. The genre isn't really used in any real way so mostly comes across as an afterthought or an idea that wasn't developed. The score is effective if mostly forgettable but the singing from the various campers and in Joan: Still is sensational. First time co-directors Gordon and Nick Lieberman show promise, the film is paced well, has energy, is well acted, and straight up is just a good time. But there is that blush of a freshman project, it is overstuffed- the camp being in financial trouble, the two veteran counselors and BFFs growing apart, the mocumentary element- that stuff is mostly unnecessary and function to pull us away from the real electricity that is captured in the other scenes- there's a protracted audition sequence that's just delicious, towards the end there's a reveal and Glenn gets the spotlight for the first time and its borderline transcendent. That's the stuff the movie is about.

A funny, compassionate, eccentric film that's good but could have been great.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Rent It.