Are You Ready to Book Your Spot in ‘Theater Camp’?

July 13, 2023

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Which one’s Theater and which one’s Camp? (CREDIT: SearchlightPictures/Screenshot)

Starring: Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, Jimmy Tatro, Nathan Lee Graham, Ayo Edebiri, Owen Thiele, Caroline Aaron, Amy Sedaris

Directors: Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman

Running Time: 93 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Middle Schoolers Dramatizing Adult Themes

Release Date: July 14, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: If you’ve ever ventured to a certain mountain range in northern New York and thought that there should be an organization called “AdirondACTS,” then Theater Camp is the movie for you! It’s a mockumentary whose production goes off the rails immediately. While watching a middle school performance of Bye Bye Birdie, AdirondACTS founder Joan Rubinsky (Amy Sedaris) has a seizure that puts her in a coma, which leaves the camp in the not-so-capable hands of her vlogger bro son Troy (Jimmy Tatro). The counselors and campers pretty much ignore him, as they’ve got plenty of drama of their own to deal with, both in terms of the shows they’re staging and the interpersonal powder kegs they’re sitting on. In particular, there are co-dependent besties Amos Klobuchar (Ben Platt) and Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon), who have spent just about every summer of their lives here as either students or teachers. And the question looming everything is: can this motley band of thespians find the gumption to keep everything afloat before the evil rich neighbor camp buys them out?

What Made an Impression?: Everything Is Acting: If you believe that the stage is more essential to life than breathing, then you really ought to watch Theater Camp as soon as possible. Or actually on second thought, maybe you should avoid it like the plague, unless, that is, you can bear some light ribbing about your greatest passion. If you do indeed take acting deathly seriously, you’ll probably recognize yourself in nearly every character in this movie. Hopefully, you can keep the lampooning in perspective and lap up the teasing. If you somehow don’t recognize the humor, well, you might want to head to a psychologist for a diagnosis.
A Stranger Lurks: For any potential viewers who aren’t exactly theater obsessives, Troy can serve as a potential surrogate character into the action. Anyone familiar with Jimmy Tatro (via Netflix’s American Vandal, ABC’s Home Economics, or his own YouTube channel) already knows that he’s perfected a certain incorrigible type: the 21st Century Slacker Bro Entrepreneur. If we’re talking generations, he’s a millennial with a Gen Z soul. Troy genuinely tries to live up to his mom’s legacy and connect with the kids, but they’re essentially living on different planets. But even though he’s a screwup who’s way out of his depth, he’s a straight shooter who just can’t give up on his optimism.
Authenticity in Their Bones: If you recruited all of the most intense kids at every middle school drama club in the Northeast for some sort of real life AdirondACTS and then made a documentary about it, I worry that it would quickly turn into a neurotic disaster. But I suspect that co-directors Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman recreated the camp experience as much as they possibly could for their cast and crew, and the results speak for themselves. Every single role is so fully realized. There’s no question that each and every actor thought deeply about their characters’ allergies, tax returns, and dream journals. Sometimes, a movie just had to exist to capture a certain group of people, and Theater Camp is one of those movies.

Theater Camp is Recommended If You Like: Waiting for Guffman, Wet Hot American Summer

Grade: 4 out of 5 Spotlights

Movie Review: Nerds Realize That Good Grades and Partying Aren’t Mutually Exclusive in the Goofy and Sweet ‘Booksmart’

May 23, 2019

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

CREDIT: Francois Duhamel/Annapurna Pictures

Starring: Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Noah Galvin, Billie Lourd, Skyler Gisondo, Jessica Williams, Jason Sudeikis, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, Mike O’Brien, Diana Silvers, Molly Gordon, Mason Gooding, Victoria Ruesga, Austin Crute, Eduardo Franco, Nico Haraga, Stephanie Styles

Director: Olivia Wilde

Running Time: 105 Minutes

Rating: R for Halting and Manic Attempts at Sex and Drug Use

Release Date: May 24, 2019

Here’s what I’ve learned from Booksmart and other recent high school-set movies and TV shows: all teenagers are smart these days. Maybe there are still some lazy slackers out there, but the conventional wisdom is that they’re the exceptions, and the new normal is that it’s cool to be a good student. This comes as a bit of a shock to Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) on the eve of their graduation, who have spent four years buckling down, nose to textbook, only to look up and discover that their partying classmates also have decent enough transcripts to get into prestigious schools, including one who will be attending Yale alongside Molly. Now, I can buy that partying kids are smart, but two kids from the same high school both going to the same Ivy League institution? That might be a bridge too far. Although, the elite college admissions process can feel so random that just saying “[insert Ivy League school here]” works as shorthand to get the point across for Molly’s worldview to suddenly come tumbling down.

So with that setup, Molly and Amy decide that they’ve got to make up for all the fun they’ve unnecessarily been missing out the past four years by fitting in as much partying as possible the night before their graduation ceremony. It’s a somewhat novel setup for a fairly typical plot, as much of the night is spent getting to the party instead of actually being at the party (Molly and Amy, naturally enough, don’t know their classmate’s address). As is usually the case, the plot shenanigans are quite shaggy, which is sometimes amusing and sometimes a little too random (one drug-fueled animated sequence really comes out of nowhere). The differences come in the perspectives, with a decidedly female (and nerdy) perspective in front of and behind the camera (it’s Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut). But the typical emotional climax is still what you would expect (and be satisfied by). These movies so often steadily build to codependent friends screaming at each other, and we’ve got a doozy of a blowout here. It’s effective, but it also makes me want to see that rare high school party movie about teenage friends with a perfectly healthy relationship.

Booksmart is Recommended If You Like: Superbad, Blockers, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, 2000s SNL alumni

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Caps and Gowns