Camp

I am going to recommend Camp to everyone I know. Camp is a entertaining, funny, and inspiring film. The film follows a group of teenagers through one Summer at Camp Ovation, a Theatre camp in the mountains of New York. I related to the film mostly because when I was a teenager, I attended a drama camp very much like Camp Ovation. But the difference here is, the kids in the film perform shows like "Promises, Promises" and "Company," more sophisticated than the shows we performed at my drama camp. And, these teens are great. Camp Ovation is the Summer experience that every kid who has ever felt like an outcast needs to have. The film shows us that no matter how other people see us, or what we are like, the important thing is just to have courage, and to believe in our ability to overcome any obstacle that we have to face. When the film was over, I thought of another work that deals with overcoming obstacles, "Rent." These Two works are comparable because of the subject matter. However, Camp is lighthearted and fun. Mr. Graff, who directed the film and wrote the screenplay, did a fantastic job with the material.

Some of the best scenes in Camp were between Micheal, a camper, and Vlad, the new guy at camp. The dialogue in these scenes is adorable. I love how Micheal is direct about his attraction to Vlad. In one scene, when Vlad whipes his face with his shirt, Micheal looks Vlad over and says, "Sorry, I am only human." In another scene, when Vlad tries to get Micheal to call his parents by telling him how they can't resist him, and accuses Micheal of blushing, Micheal answers, "Are you kidding? I am doing everything but batting my eyes." Boy, I only wish I had a friend like Micheal when I was a teenager. I have to mention the fabulous musical numbers. "The Ladies Who Lunch," "Promises, Promises," "Father, Sister," "Turkey Lurky," just to name a few. I wanted to get up out of my seat and sing out loud. Camp is one of the best films I have had the privilage to see all year. I loved it! _Josh Weinman_

After a string of musical flops, the career of Bert Hanley is at rock bottom, which leads him to take up a position with a musical summer camp. When he arrives to teach he finds a diverse group of boys and girls who have come together to put on one musical every two weeks, leading up to one final show at the end of the camp. He is angry at the children's naïve ease of acceptance of the musical lifestyle and their apparent comfort with who they are, feeling that they are not helping themselves for when they go out into the real world. However will their energy for the music win him over or just frustrate him?

I can understand why this film didn't make a massive splash when it hit UK cinemas – basically I saw a trailer for it then the next time I saw it, it was on DVD! It is very different from your average teen movie as well as being different from many musicals (not always a massive genre in themselves). I will be the first to admit that this film has weaknesses but I enjoyed it from the opening song, through to the final show – there was barely a moment where I was bored or uninterested. The basic plot is a mix of minor story lines around an array of characters – various romances happen, lessons are learned, eyes are opened and friendships made. It all sounds rather ordinary and, in a way, I suppose that it does do just what you expect it to. However, pretty much every other aspect of the film comes together to lift the film to be better than the script suggested it would be.

Primarily, if you hate musicals, then avoid this for it is a big part and, for me, it served as a superb foundation. The overall soundtrack is really good and is an enjoyable mix of music but it is the actual musical numbers that really lift the film. They are really enjoyable – both the well known ones and the new songs; they fit in well with the narrative and act as good bits of punctuation. The narrative could have been stronger but the musical numbers mean that even if the narrative causes a slight dip, then the songs are there to provide a lift.

The characters are very well drawn, even if they don't use them that well. The fact that we have so many diverse teenagers who seem at ease with who they are is perhaps rather difficult to swallow but it certainly helps make the film feel a bit different from the usual. At first I was a bit put off by how the gay characters all seemed to be of the 'flaming' variety, but as the film went on I got over this and got to know their characters and not just their characteristics. More impressively, the whole cast (mainly teenagers) are really good – they cope with the demands of the narrative (and the limitations as well) but they are very impressive when it comes to the musical numbers. One time tutor at one of these camps himself, writer/director Graff does a really good job with the direction here – it never feels as low budget as I imagine it must have been and he frames many shots in involving ways.

Overall this is a standard teenage movie with all the hurts, lessons, romances and friendships that you would expect from the genre but it manages to rise above many of the genre by having different (if unrealistic) characters, roundly good performances and frequent musical numbers that never let the fun level of the film dip for too long.

...although that may not be saying much, it truly loves these kids that it portrays and is clearly made for such kids. Other reviewers have faulted "Camp" for its shallow plot, the inconsistency of its characters, the stereotypes, and an overall amateurish quality. All I can say is "What'd you expect? It's a teen drama!" In fact, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have worked if the film tried to be more grown-up. To properly enjoy "Camp", adult viewers need to recall their world view during their teen years. Only then can they realize how much they would have wanted to see a movie like this when they were teens. Of course, if you were a quarterback or prom queen in high school, then perhaps you wouldn't be able to relate to this movie at all.

The talent of this group of young people is amazing. As a theater major and a singer, these kids displayed the talent that you always hoped would show up at an audition. How Graff brought together such a wonderfully diverse and talented group puzzles me. I mean these kids weren't typical Hollywood flash and from their profiles this movie was the only thing that most of them have ever been in, however, that never shows on the screen. Although the storyline is not extremely complex, it is interesting and the music makes the movie worth seeing. The production numbers in the show are staged well and the choreography is fantastic. Although I didn't buy for one minute that this was a theater camp (because everyone was ULTRA talented), I appreciated the fact that the musical performances weren't overstaged with props, costumes, and sets that would never be available to ANY high school student.

Camp is based on a real camp in the Catskills, NY. I have worked there for the past few years and had the slightly strange experience of attending the national premiere with the whole of the camp in addition to Todd Graf and the cast who then came back to the camp to sit in on rehearsals for the evening. For this among other reasons, I found it quite difficult to view the film objectively. The whole film was shot on location at the camp, apart from a couple of shots which were shot nearby, and so the majority of film was spent with the kids cheering whenever a new location was shown, or for a number of the cast who had really attended the camp in the past few years. For the sake of the film you have to accept that this is a camp with no counsellors, dorms that opposite sexes can go into at will among other things. However the depiction of the characters were strong. As a theatre kid said to me this summer, `I come here because everyone else is just as weird as I am!' And that is kind-a the motto of the movie. I do wish they'd showed more of the sports counsellor (who again does exist at a theatre camp in the same way that most sports camps put on a play). I know they shot more footage and had to edit it out. The songs are overdubbed as a previous reviewer wrote, but it is the kids singing them, they were just recorded in a studio. All in all I enjoyed the film, and am interested in hearing other peoples opinions who are not involved with the camp the film is based on. Yes kids like these do exist, and yes they are the guys you will see on Broadway and in the movies in a few years.