Theater Camp (2023)

When "Joan" (Amy Sedaris) unfortunately has a seizure caused by the strobe lighting (or perhaps the singing) at an am-dram performance of "Bye Bye Birdie", her profiteering and none-too-bright son "Troy" (the Channing tatum-esque Jimmy Tatro) finds himself in charge of her summer camp for would be, young, theatricals. This school is largely held together by "Amos" (Ben Platt), "Rebecca-Diane" (Molly Gordon) and the technical factotum "Glenn" (Noah Galvin). Next door there is a much more exclusive operation and they have their eyes on the valuable land, so when foreclosure looms they all must rally round to raise some cash and save the place from demolition. Can they? Do we actually want them to? I don't come from a nation where there is much of a summer "camp" culture, and so much of this just came across as an overly contrived concept with all of the precociousness of "Glee" but none of the character of "Fame". The kids are largely just annoying, as is the dithering storyline between the two adult principals. There is one decent song but you have to wait a while for that, otherwise the POV documentary style of photography offers an intimacy into the lives of some professional no-hopers charged with instilling some semblance of hope into these youngsters that just didn't engage me. I was on my own in the cinema when I watched this - it's better than that, but only just.