Set in a stage training program for shy kids and incorrigible amateurs, where attendees receive intensive instruction from Broadway burnouts, "Theater Camp" is that rare skit that has viewers laughing from the opening scene until the credits roll.
I'm referring to the 18-minute short film that Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, and Ben Platt uploaded to YouTube about a month into the pandemic, earning a cult following among musical theater geeks and those who survived comparable drama boot camps in upstate New York.
Directors: Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman
Writers: Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman
Stars: Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin
The main version is more of the same, minus the laughs. Truth be told, this new "Theater Camp" probably contains so many laughs, except now, almost all of them are packed into the final half hour of a rapidly aging film in which co-directors Gordon and Lieberman hammer the same joke to death. satiety. The driving concept behind "Theatre Camp," which sold to Searchlight for a high seven figures at the Sundance Film Festival, is that it's fun to watch a group of kids undergo tough love auditions and notoriously inappropriate acting exercises for part of unqualified adults. A pint-sized would-be agent (Alan Kim, "Minari") works the phones, promoting his classmates. Another boy (Donovan Colan) has a hard time coming out, as a heterosexual, to his two parents.
Way back in 2008 (when wacky indie films still had a fighting chance at the box office), Focus Features invested a whopping $10 million for "Hamlet 2," a scripted film starring Steve Coogan as a washed-up actor turned into an ambitious high school student. drama teacher who writes a sequel that is not Shakespearean caliber for his students to perform. Hilarity ensued. Flash forward 15 years, and that concept feels quaint ("Hamlet 2" wasn't even that original then, following in the footsteps of "School of Rock" and "Razzle Dazzle"). These days, 18 minutes is already almost the maximum that such a concept can handle.
From the opening scene, in which Adirond Acts camp founder Joan Rubinsky (Amy Sedaris) suffers a strobe-light-induced seizure in a high school production of "Bye Bye Birdie," "Theater Camp" seems to be trying too hard. Sedaris may be a comedy legend, but she disappears from the movie too soon. “After a day of filming, the subject of our documentary was now in a coma,” an intertitle explains. Yes, “our documentary”. Here we are in the year 2023, and people are still making mock documents. It's easy to understand why, as the shaky, haphazardly edited format disguises a thin script and a shoestring budget.
For that to work, it helps to have a cast of Christopher Guest-level improv talent, rather than a mix of precocious young actors and adult drama camp alumni spouting absurd inside jokes about character motivations, professional frustrations and the dangers of being non-unionized. The core ensemble features Platt and Gordon as codependent best friends Amos and Rebecca-Diane, who met at a failed Juilliard audition and have been amateur creative collaborators ever since; Jimmy Tatro as Joan's son Troy, an earless social media jock who is woefully ill-equipped to run the camp in his absence; and Galvin as Glenn, an underappreciated jack of all trades waiting for his moment to shine.
The cast may be largely made up of children, but the movie doesn't seem like it was made for their demographic. Flamboyant gay costume designer Gigi (Owen Thiele) sounds like he's been watching too much "RuPaul's Drag Race." Overly demanding dance instructor Clive (Nathan Lee Graham) tells the boys, “You should know that only 3% of people make it. The rest of them end up in a mental facility or a go-go box in Hell's Kitchen." The actors aren't unattractive per se (after "Dear Evan Hansen," Platt's neuroses are kind of a point of character). ), but they're locked into a garish self-parody mode, as editor Jon Philpot's fast-paced style and James McAlister's unnerving score amplify the sense of creative mess.
While Sedaris's character lies in a coma, Troy is tasked with finding a way to raise enough money to prevent the bank from repossessing the Adirond Acts or, worse yet, let luxury rival Camp Lakeside (played by Patti Harrison) buy the property.
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