Theater Camp

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 muc...

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 cant lay claim. The problem here is that the picture is too hit or miss on too many fronts: When its on, its brilliant and genuinely hilarious (especially in the films final act); however, when its not, it tries too hard to be funny and often ends up falling flat. Thats unfortunate, since the pictures high points as good as they are simply arent enough to make up for the low ones. This fau...