Directed by: Molly Gordon & Nick Lieberman
Written by: Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, Ben Platt
Starring: Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Jimmy Tatro, Patti Harrison
Rating: [4/5]
Finding a community that unites those with shared interests can make a massive difference in the esteem of those involved. It makes camps specializing in specific interests something to be cherished as seen in Theater Camp. However, as exhibited in the film the realities of finances impact even the most altruistic ventures as seen in another venture in another summer welcoming all of these young thespians.
After the founder of the theater-focused summer camp AdirondACTS, Joan Rubinksy (Amy Sedaris) slips into a coma following a seizure, her son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) steps into manage another year of this camp facing major financial issues. Also arriving for another summer are best friends and co-directors Amos (Ben Platt) and Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon), who love stepping into this role each year but something’s a bit different for them now.
As someone never involved in theater in any stage of life, Theater Camp had the job of not only filling in audience members like me into this ecosystem while also providing enough inside jokes for those who have experienced in their lives to appreciate. An endeavor this film handles very well in not only displaying the beauty of this community but also displaying the issues it faces in a world where everything needs a financial justification rather than it serving a larger good. Therefore, this film gets split into two types of stories with art and finance and each of them do a splendid job of nailing the comedy involved with it.
With the camp in financial straits, Troy’s journey as a finance influencer gets put to the test to maintain something incredibly important to his mother. He represents this line between valuing art for the sake of it but having to face the reality that art itself does not always turn a profit nor does it always keep the lights on. His inventive ways to try to keep things running get funnier as the film progresses but his character growth throughout has the largest material change and ultimately becomes the most endearing by a wide margin as a testament to what the purity of art can do to a person. This occurs in even more of a tremendous effect when it impacts children and how much they formulate their identity and find their community as wonderfully cataloged through their experiences in the camp.
The other adults that get the majority of the screen time are Amos and Rebecca-Diane, who have found each other through the arts and have made it a tradition to continue to come back and give back to the theater community by mentoring and directing these kids. Their dynamic evokes this friendship that has its strengths but still has its weak spots with this implied agreement between them that cannot be sustainable. This occurs specifically with Rebecca-Diane and her more duplicitousness in what she decides to hide from her close friend as they move away from being theater kids and deal with the realities of operating as theater adults. Stepping into this phase removes all the fun and brings on the responsibility no one wants to take on.
Amidst everything happening between the adults, Theater Camp manages to capture the unbridled freedom these kids feel when they step into this camp. It certainly seeks to rekindle the memory of those who experienced this in their youth and can reminisce the moments where their biggest worry lied in hitting their lines correctly rather than everything else life offers. With the warm feelings it evokes, the film plays heavily into the comedy of this all as these children compete with each other and how the surrounding adults somewhat play into it. The direction utilized by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman gives this nostalgic aesthetic glean to every scene that continues to fortify the warmth of this experience and even if the stakes feel high at the moment, it’s still just a camp. The distinct cutaways as well to the reactions of characters to the strange things that transpire continue to add to the experience. It comes with a mix of seriousness but also ridiculousness that balances each other out for quite the medley.
Such a wildly fun time, Theater Camp creates such an enriching environment with wonderfully enjoyable characters. Everything feels over the top and very dramatic in moments, but would it be any other way when it comes to uniting a group of people who love themselves some theater. As much as all the adult performers did their part, the child actors certainly also deserved some praise in truly filling out what makes this experience worth it for all involved. Everyone in this feature did their part in creating such a lovingly moving and comedic little film that has so much heart in displaying what makes a theater camp so special and nurturing.
Films with Josh 
