What happens when you gather a bunch of young, talented performers and aspiring actors/guidance counselors into a camp where they can hone their craft? Well, you get A LOT of drama and awkward hijinks. Theater Camp is the latest comedy set in a place for future thespians, and led by theater kids Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, and Noah Galvin it was one of the most buzzed-about films at Sundance.
Gordon and Lieberman directed and wrote the screenplay with Galvin, with Gordon and Galvin also starring in the mockumentary film set at a rundown drama camp in upstate New York. Gordon and Dear Evan Hansen‘s Ben Platt star as lifelong best friends who see their friendship tested when one finds success the other hasn’t, while the camp itself faces competition from an aggressive rival.
Also in the cast are Patti Harrison, Jimmy Tatro, Amy Sedaris, and The Bear breakout Ayo Edibiri.
I’m not gonna front here, we HATED this movie here. Both Cortland and I saw it at Sundance and I’m pretty sure we never laughed. Personally, I feel like every movie of this type fails to live up to Todd Graff’s far-superior 2002 film, Camp, and they should all stop trying. However, Searchlight Pictures swooped in and acquired Theater Camp in one of the biggest deals of the festival, so it pays to have important parents with lots of deep studio connections.
Theater Camp opens in theaters on July 14th.
Theater Camp follows the eccentric staff running a scrappy theater camp in upstate New York. After its indomitable and beloved founder falls into a coma, they must band together with her clueless “crypto-bro” son to keep the thespian paradise afloat.
