Premise: Imagine if Christopher Guest made a movie about theater camp.
This is one of the easier Sundance movies to talk about because it's one of the ones that is only concerned with being a comedy. It's not a "Sundance dramedy" which normally means it's a straight drama but with actors who normally do comedies. Theater Camp is just a silly movie about a struggling theater camp that's trying to carry on after their director goes into a coma after a freak children's theater accident.
Theater Camp is shot in a mocumentary style, reminiscent to Christopher Guest's movies or Spinal Tap. I don't know if it was as improvised as those comparisons, but it sure felt like it was. I've never been the biggest fan of Guests movies or even something like Curb Your Enthusiasm. While they can result in some great jokes, the rest of the time feels like stalling. I can see the actors thinking on their feet too much. I get the appeal but it doesn't work as fully on me.
Given that, I liked Theater Camp about as much as I could. Directors Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman know this world well. No doubt a lot of the characters and beats come from their own experiences. Both the adult and child casts are game for anything. I particularly like Ayo Edebiri as the clearly unqualified camp instructor.
I do wish the movie had some more time for the younger cast. I get why there wasn't. It's incredibly hard to cast a campful of under 16 actors with impeccable comic timing and instincts who can be relied on to punch up lines and riff. Just because I get why something is next to impossible though, doesn't mean I can't point out that it didn't fully work.
Theater Camp is a shaggy movie. But it's short, has a strong cast, and reflects a deep understanding of the topic. You could do a lot worse than that.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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