Now this year had many films I was excited for and although films such as Oppenheimer and Mission Impossible living up and exceeding my expectations were thrills, I can’t help but admit how when I found out that the series of funny people involved in this project were making a mockumentary about a theater camp, in a film that was getting favourable reviews… I was more excited for this in many ways that many other films. Then I saw the trailer and when I came to the realisation that the film was moulded in my exact fashion of humour, then my excitement grew and became wariness of over-expectation. All wariness is gone, all worry is gone. Theater Camp is a perfect little film and my bias to love all things theatrical be damned, I will love this film and proclaim for it unabashedly.
Theater Camp never reinvents the wheel, which in many ways is a very harsh opening line to the main body of this review, however comes with an addendum. Theater Camp never reinvents the wheel when it comes to its form or its comedy or its basic outline, however also sits beautifully amongst the best of the style it is aping. The film is a mockumentary set in and around a Theater Camp for kids for the summer as it faces possible foreclosure in the aftermath of its founder falling into a coma (a hilarious and touching Amy Sedaris cameo at the start of the film). The camp heads into its summer season ran by the same familiar faces at the camp with a few new exceptions. The clashes of personality of the new and theatrically out of place with the realistic as much as it hilarious representation of the multiple theatrical types we all know and love is the backbone of the films narrative, and never once feels forced or in the way of the films humour. In the hands of the chief four who made the short film that this film is a feature length version of; with the film directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, and written by Gordon, Lieberman, Noah Galvin and Ben Platt, and starring Gordon, Platt, Galvin, amongst many others in the film stellar ensemble – one gets the immediate impression how loving, knowing and ‘inside baseball’ this film is going to be, and when these initial thoughts all ring true, then we are off to the races for a truly joyous 90 minute romp around the joys of this little world. Gordon and Lieberman’s direction adopts the classic form of a mockumentary, however features no talking heads, instead adopting a series of title cards that without exaggeration all made me laugh heartily. As a matter of fact it should be stated with immediacy that the rate of landing gags in this film was one of the highest I’ve had with any comedy in a while. The wicked pace, plentiful ensemble of brilliant characters performed hilariously as much as truthfully and the overall focus on joy and humour makes Theater Camp overall one of the most entertaining viewing experiences of my year thus far.
There isn’t really
one performance in Theater Camp that misses, whether it be from the
smallest of opening cameos with Sedaris, to any of the child performances who
are all some of the best I have seen in a comedic film – all of them feeling truthful
to this world and incredibly talented. Jimmy Tatro is a humorous ‘straight man’
against the world of the musical theatre that makes for the films sneakily effecting
narrative of him attempting as best he can to get the camp back financially in
their hands as touching as it is. Playing against him in many scenes is Patti
Harrison, who again could have so easily been a stereotypical villain, but
Harrisons’ off-kilter and at time bizarre delivery of absurdist hilarious lines
makes even ‘the dull villain’ figure a hilarious addition. Caroline Aaron, Ayo
Edebiri, Owen Thiele and Nathan Lee Graham all bring a variety of craft, humour
and heart to the truth of this beautiful and hilarious film – I think the
biggest difference between a film like this and some of the others of its ilk is
its focus on realism in a few ways that others in this vein have leant more to absurdism
or exaggeration, in this film it goes without saying that it is all largely believable,
and the performances of so many of the actors as they bring heightened
characters into this realistic world without sacrificing humour is a major tool
in this films arsenal. Noah Galvin brings immense humour to the role of the
stage technician and beyond that takes the finale of the film into new levels
of brilliance. Gordon and Platt are in many ways the films central figures or
at least as central as any of the characters could be in a film of this
ensemble nature, they too have to handle the shifting emotional arc of their characters
beyond the many, many scenes they deliver hilarious dialogue and moments in.
Gordon and Platt do just as excellently as everybody else involved does and in
a metatextual way the film’s power of ensemble reflects the films messages of
companionship.
A just perfect 10/10 comedy. Crafted and delivered so beautifully and home-spun with a pace that so many comedies in this modern day miss desperately. This is clichéd and this is something we have seen prior in multiple very specific and some more general ways, however the highs of this film’s comedy and its final heartfelt punch (which chiefly never fails to sacrifice humour either), is the sort of magic trick where you can imagine stories of hours and hours of improv, however are thankful that ultimately the film comes down to a sublimely tight 90 minute joy. It’s incredibly specific in its humour and I’m not levelling against the film that it won’t hit for all as I do think the film has mass general appeal, however for those it will sing to (and in many ways for those its made for) this will land for them like no film in recent memory.
P.S. To be honest I was a little underwhelmed on first go around with the final musical. It was certainly very funny and has grown on me immediately, but it unfortunately fell victim of things wholly out of its control in that I’ve just seen better versions of what this final musical did a few times over now in this exact sort of mockumentary fashion. It’s not better for me than Red, White and Blaine! or Mr G: The Musical. Now every time someone makes one of these sorts of mockumentaries about theatrical types I just give over, cause they always end up favourite films of mine, however this one on first watch anyhow did feel slightly underwhelming with its final offer. But this a reverse case where I’m not letting my personal bias remove from this film the rating that it very much deserves.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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