المعسكر المسرحي

Possibly the worst movie I've seen at the cinema and one of three that I have actually walked out of in my life. After over an hour it still had gotten no better. It's completely flat, dull, full of unlikeable characters, no funniness when it's meant to be funny and the story is serious lacking. Such a shame for some of the talent the child actors clearly have. I would expect so much better for a movie that's made it to the cinema especially in such times that the cinema needs to draw people to it. There are so much better movies out currently and I'd recommend anyone to watch them over this any day.

It's an ensemble comedy set in the present day at a theater camp for children and youth in upstate New York. It follows events at the camp during a summer when financial woes threaten its existence and the absence of its founding leader, who has suffered a stroke. Troy Rubinsky (Jimmy Tatro) is the son of AdirondACTS founder Joan Rubinsky (Amy Sedaris). Joan suffers a stroke while recruiting campers and is in a coma. Troy is clueless about theater but fancies himself the financial genius needed to save the camp. The staff leaders feature Amos (Ben Platt) and Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon) as the co-directors of the feature production and Glenn (Noah Galvin) as the tech guy. There are other striking characters and a mass of kids with visible roles. "Theater Camp" was inspired by a 2020 film short of the same name. It should have stayed that way. The movie moves along at a whirlwind pace with occasional clever bits and out-loud chuckles. It felt like filler stretched over a thin plot. Apparently, it contains many historical theater allusions that passed me by.

They're calling this a niche movie, and that's something I can agree with. But for the other ninety nine percent of us who go to see this film, I'd say it has very limited appeal. And this from someone who had a background role in the picture. More on that later. I think I understand what the filmmakers were trying to do here with an homage to all those kids attending summer camp for would-be thespians. However, it just didn't come across as entertaining for this viewer. I'll go to bat for the youngsters who made a go of it in this picture, some of them showed remarkable skill, especially the young black boy who sang and danced at the beginning of the story. I can't really identify him from the cast list, but I thought he was pretty talented. The girl who had to leave before the final showing of the play 'Joan, Still' had an exceptional singing voice, and she'll probably do well in future endeavors. As for my involvement, if you don't blink and catch the scene at the Rotary Club dinner honoring the camp's founder (Amy Sedaris), now in a coma, you might recognize the back of my head, just as I appeared in an episode of "White House Plumbers". I just can't catch a break. A final observation. This movie was filmed in Warwick, New York at a now unused summer camp going by the name of the Kutz Camp. Being it's so far removed from the Adirondack Mountains, I'll take exception with the name attributed to the camp in the movie. It was called AdirondACTS. Why couldn't they have named it the ACTskills?