Theater Camp

CinemaSerf

August 30, 2023

6/10

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 exclusiv…

Films in the mockumentary genre can be thoroughly satisfying entertainment experiences when done right, as seen in such examples as “Zelig” (1983), “This Is Spinal Tap” (1984) and “Fear of a Black Hat” (1993). But the key, as noted above, is in doing them right, something to which this latest such offering from writer-directors Nick Lieberman and Molly Gordon can’t lay claim. The problem here is that the picture is too hit or miss on too many fronts: When it’s on, it’s brilliant and genuinely hi…