★★★★☆
Theatre lovers – and I fully admit to falling into that camp – love talking about the theatre. They’re also famously very keen to make theatre and films about the theatre. This is exactly why they must never normally be allowed to do so. We’d never see art about anything else again.
But where most films about the inside of the entertainment industry feel unintentionally insular, the infuriatingly Americanised Theater Camp fully embraces its audience of wannabee thespians. Gags about vocal rest and tongue-twisting warmup games are laser-targeted at folks who spent their childhoods practicing monologues in the bathroom mirror.
For everyone else, there’s every chance you’ll find at least half the characters completely insufferable, though you might be laughing too hard to care. Conventional screenwriting wisdom says that with specificity comes universality, and Theater Camp largely proves that adage to be true with a big heart and one of the funniest studio comedy scripts in recent memory.
The familiar plot sees bro-y wannabe business influencer Troy (Jimmy Tatro) take over his mother’s ailing summer camp, much to the chagrin of the eccentric community of staff and campers she left behind. One thing leads to another, and with the help of some scary-sounding foreclosure warnings and an evil businesswoman (Patti Harrison), everything comes down to one final performance to save the camp from ruin. Though the film starts life as a pseudo mockumentary, that aspect is quickly abandoned to the film’s benefit.
READ MORE: Nick Lieberman on Theater Camp: ‘Human rawness is right next to utter absurdity’
Theater Camp only really has one joke (theatre people are weird), but it gets a ridiculous amount of mileage from it. From Ben Platt and Molly Gordon’s pair of over-achieving teachers to the eight-year-old wannabe agent who spends his time sneaking into the camp offices to make business calls, the eccentric cast pull off ridiculous situations with a wonderfully theatrical seriousness.
The film also manages to stay surprisingly fresh. Though some characters inevitably fall into familiar stereotypes, most individual gags feel new, even amongst a community predisposed to poking fun at itself. The improvisational feel directors Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman bring to the screen suits the cast of overly dramatic performers down to the ground.
The film’s mockumentary style gives it a nice improvisational feel (credit: Searchlight Pictures)
That cast are also uniformly terrific. Platt successfully throws away his Dear Evan Hansen shackles to show off impressive comic chops, while Booksmart’s Noah Galvin (who also writes with Gordon and Lieberman) shines as the timid technician hiding a stage-worthy talent. Real kudos has to go to the film’s young cast, though, who make hilariously believable theatre-obsessives.
If the script’s high gag rate does result in one trade-off, it’s in a slight lack of personal development amongst the characters. Though the film’s finale does hit all the emotional beats you might expect, they don’t quite manage the same heft you might expect from a sweet, sharply written comedy like this one.
READ MORE: Director Josh Greenbaum on Strays: ‘No genre should be limited by any one style’
But even before a UK release, Theater Camp has all the makings of a cult classic. Though the gag rate is certainly high enough to easily appeal to a mainstream audience, the subject matter might prove difficult for those outside its target audience to get on board with. It’s to the film’s credit, then, that it doesn’t seem to care. Theater Camp knows completely and unapologetically what it is and who it is for. To that crowd, it’s a surefire hit. To everyone else, give it a try – these theatre kids might surprise you.
Theater Camp arrives in UK cinemas on 25 August
