In its structure, its technique, its execution, Theater Camp perfectly lives up to and encapsulates that title -a source of both its charms and weaknesses. It is a comedy about theatre kids made by theatre kids, and if you have any understanding of the world of theatre education you can get a sense of what such a product would look like. The movie is directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, and they wrote it with Ben Platt and Noah Galvin, based off a short film the four of them had collaborated on -with Gordon, Platt, and Galvin all starring in the finished project as well. There’s an abundance of youthfulness in this -all of these major creatives are under thirty; and with that comes both a ton of creative energy and a lot of unwieldy, even amateur choices in the script and filmmaking. There’s enthusiasm there, the distinct enthusiasm of dedicated and probably overly-ostentatious theatre kids putting on a show. Which is ironic because that’s exactly the thing the film is aiming to satirize.
It is often an insular film, directed at theatre and musical theatre fans, but it does have one notable outsider framed as the entry-point into the movie: Troy, played by Jimmy Tatro, the theatre-illiterate crypto-bro son of Amy Sedaris’ camp director, whom he has to suddenly take over for when she falls into a coma. His efforts at managing a camp he has little understanding of becomes the secondary storyline however to the staging of an original musical Joan, Still -in an honour of the incapacitated founder, by acting teachers (and aspiring actors themselves) Amos and Rebecca-Diane (Platt and Gordon respectively). Though they and each of the other adult counsellors are united in having to wrangle their collection of quirky, ambitious kids -each it seems with some kind of a grand Broadway dream.
There’s a very modest sense of self-effacement to the script as Platt and Gordon write their characters as largely directionless failures with an inflated sense of their own tastes and credentials. And indeed some of the movie’s funnier moments are when they are taking their extremely silly and arguably in-poor-taste play seriously -whispering at each other during auditions on certain kids’ performances that feels in a way like that old Funny or Die sketch with Alfred Molina as a pompous children’s theatre critic. At one point they chew out a girl for wearing a sensitive tear-evoking mascara, equating it directly to performance-enhancing drugs. The general nature of their instructions and direction, that at times feels almost Stanislavsky-esque, is absurd and there is fun comedy to be gleaned from that. But one of the choices by this team of writers that blunts that is how the self-importance of these characters and in their musical is extended to the children at the camp as well. Most of the kids are just as obsessed, just as weird about musical theatre, engaging wholeheartedly in broad showmanship and with precociously intense attitudes about everything. Many of them are also just as devoted to Joan and the camp itself as their teachers. As such, a lot of the comedy in the rehearsing, staging, the typical theatre camp experiences, isn’t very effective. It’s a reason why Ayo Edebiri’s Janet, for her limited screen-time, is such a stand-out -as she’s the only relatively grounded person there to comment on how ridiculous it all is. Much of the humour is also very surface-level where this kind of subject matter is concerned, and again clearly written for theatre nerds so that it doesn’t have much of a reach. In fact to go a step further it’s easy to see this movie in terms of a narrow pseudo-elitism -dealing so specifically with an art form inaccessible to the general public whilst being full of privileged characters all written and directed by a close circle of privileged showbiz friends.
It’s this that makes the parts of the plot concerning Troy more interesting -as even though he’s a cartoon as well, he’s cut from a very different and more creative cloth, outside of the familiar wheelhouse of the writer-directors. Also, there are just few actor-comedians of this generation who can play dumb as creatively and effectively as Jimmy Tatro. Troy is actually a fairly likeable character. Despite his shallow influencer instincts, his energy translates to his new responsibilities well, and the movie avoids making him either an antagonist figure trying to subvert or alienate this camp he doesn’t understand, nor a completely incompetent rube. In fact he’s very open to better understanding the theatre world -perhaps to the detriment of falling in with a manipulative theatre camp rival played by Patti Harrison. But it’s ultimately a positive journey he goes on, as much a dolt as he remains -certainly more engaging than the drama that is forced on Amos and Rebecca-Diane.
The movie is shot in a mockumentary format, though without the talking heads you would see in most shows of that nature, and while it leads to a few good jokes, it also seems implemented a bit arbitrarily -as though it was merely the comedy format the creatives liked most. A camera crew is never directly acknowledged, but then the movie makes use of context inter-titles and other such devices to indicate that yes, a documentary is happening. But of course that framing doesn’t work with the more personal plotting the movie gets into. And it’s not terribly well-executed either -you get the sense of a lot of mimicry of how other mockumentary shows or movies are shot without much consideration of how it can adapt to the needs of this script. For certain stretches it’ll be superfluous, the camera will move out of obligation rather than necessity for example. All through the filmmaking, the inexperience is clear.
But again, that enthusiasm is also visceral, particularly when it comes to the staging of Joan, Still, where some of the best moments are sequestered, including from Galvin -up to that point, mostly an inauspicious foil to Troy, who becomes unexpectedly the star of the show. You also get a better sense of how baffling the musical is and the sharper jokes on Amos and Rebecca-Diane’s capabilities. And there is one great gag in the climax involving a livestream. Like many a real-life equivalent, Theater Camp is well-intentioned, made for a specific audience its creators intimately identify with. The highly unremarkable filmmaking, the innocuous framing choice, the structure of the comedy and the jokes -many of which were improvised and you can tell- have all the same staples of your average amateur theatrical production. It’s a messy movie in a very particular way. But like I said, it has its charms in this, just the same as most theatre kids (children and adults) you’ll ever meet.
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JordanBosch
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jordan_D_Bosch
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/jbosch
Comments
Post a Comment