THEATER CAMP (B+) - This is an appropriately campy send-up of east-coast summer theater camps for kids, an obvious labor of love by the creators and the cast. Their enthusiasm throughout is addictive.
Molly Gordon and Ben Platt star as camp leaders (and former campers) Rebecca-Diane and Amos at AdirondActs, an upstate New York summer workshop for artsy kids. They are working on a tribute to the camp's owner, Joan (Amy Sedaris), who spends the movie in a coma while her bro-son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) tries to fend off financial ruin. Rebecca-Diane and Amos are writing the musical (on the fly, and it shows), though Amos shoulders most of the burden while Rebecca-Diane goes AWOL more and more, presumably off seeking a legitimate acting job.
Gordon and Platt collaborated with Nick Lieberman and Noah Galvin on the sassy script; Gordon and Lieberman directed. They are expanding on a short that they created, and they have giddy fun spoofing the teenage drama of summer camp -- something they must know from experience. The script sizzles with one liners. Kids run through vocal warm-up exercises utilizing phrases like "Wolf Blitzer has a blister on his upper lip." They traffic in silly absurdities -- "I'm not mad," Amos tells a student. "I'm just furious" -- and over-the-top drama-queen therapy-speak like this, when Rebecca Diane is a no-show at bedtime story time: "Waiting for entertainment that was expected is a painful experience." Amos has an idea for an after-school program called Chekhov for Children of Divorce.
The adults are wonderfully hammy. Nathan Lee Graham treats the kids like a troupe of drag queens. Patti Harrison is always welcome. Ayo Edebiri ("Bottoms") is underused as an underprepared teacher who makes things up as she goes along. Keep an eye on Glenn (Galvin), the all-purpose tech-support guy.
Gordon and Platt hold the center together as old friends who can read each other's minds but whose bond is holding each other back. Their "let's put on a show" zeal has a melancholic subtext to it. (Every generation gets the Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney they deserve.) That bipolar B-story lends a certain gravitas to the mindless fun that carries the narrative along. That extra layer helps keep a funny movie from descending into trite parody.
BONUS TRACKS
Early in the film we get a snippet of Paul Simon's "Obvious Child," and we rarely pass up an excuse to play this one:
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