Summer Camp, 2024.
Written and Directed by Castille Landon.
Starring Diane Keaton, Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, Eugene Levy, Beverly D’Angelo, Victoria Rowell, Maria Howell, Dennis Haysbert, Nicole Richie, Josh Peck, Betsy Sodaro, Tom Wright, Ray Santiago, Taylor Madeline Hand, Kensington Tallman, Gabe Sklar, Lindsey Blanchard, Artemis Davis, Gabrielle Days, and Zachary Connor.
SYNOPSIS:
Follows Nora, Ginny, and Mary, three childhood best friends who used to spend every summer at a sleep away camp together. After years, when the opportunity to get back together for a summer camp reunion presents itself, they all seize it.
There is value in exploring time-tested friendships in old age, but for whatever reason, movies like Summer Camp are less concerned with depicting characters who feel human navigating believable drama and more fixated on going for cheap, lazy laughs that typically play up the silliness of elderly shenanigans.
These movies almost always seem to feature Diane Keaton, who is arguably the worst offender when it comes to playing characters over the top. Naturally, this is frustrating since co-stars Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, and Eugene Levy are at least bringing something authentic and relatable to their roles even if, at the end of the day, this is a ridiculous film about someone who secretly spends a quarter-million to reunite with cherished childhood friends who have struggled to stay in touch across the 50 years since they aged out of the titular summer camp.
That would be Jenny, a successful author of aggressively forward self-help books, now going by Ginny. Since childhood, she was always the one eager to live life freely whilst saving her new friends at summer camp from being bullied by the pretty girls, coming out of their shells, and trying out various activities like archery (which doesn’t go well and immediately gets a supervisor injured as a lame attempt at comedy.) Those friends are Diane Keaton’s Nora, who would go on to become a highly educated biochemist putting work before life, and Mary (Alfre Woodard), a nurse who gave up on more ambitious dreams of becoming a doctor to settle on married life that grew loveless and more like a second job over time.
Everyone is coming to the summer camp reunion, including past crush Stevie D (Eugene Levy, playing a likable wise gentleman) and even the bullies led by Beverly D’Angelo’s Jane. There is also an overexcited guard (Betsy Sodaro) put to the test as this is a movie where intended comedy comes from food fights breaking out, among other eye-rolling set pieces. Then there is a bumbling counselor, played by Josh Peck, who keeps getting reassigned to monitor different activities, constantly screwing things up in ways that, apparently, are also meant to be funny.
Written and directed by Castille Landon, the lessons shoved in one’s face throughout Summer Camp are nothing new for this subgenre and, unfortunately, come with the same flaws that generally sink these types of movies. Nora needs to be reminded how to ignore work and have fun (not happy about handing over all electronic devices at the camp, unable to check work-related emails). Mary needs to realize that her husband is nothing more than a dependent manchild who has deprived her of enjoying time with friends, and Ginny must realize that her readers are not the only ones who could use some reflection and self-help.
Smartly, there doesn’t appear to be a true primary character focus here, allowing the three friends ample time to reveal more about their lives while hanging out with others. Castille Landon doesn’t perceive them as more important to someone else. There are also a small handful of effective moments, whether it be from Mary arguing with her husband as he shows up to forcibly bring her home or Stevie vulnerably detailing how an obsessive dedication to work wasn’t worth it and how he now enjoys regularly spending time with his family even if he doesn’t necessarily like what they are doing for fun on any given day.
Summer Camp has nuggets of wisdom buried under atrocious humor, sometimes made more groan-worthy by the corniest needle drops. With a rewrite or two taking the material more seriously (which doesn’t mean eliminating jokes entirely), there is an interesting, refreshing story about old-age friendship to be told here. Instead, we get jokes about deer shit, Diane Keaton cluelessly using technology (which makes no damn sense considering how intelligent the character is supposed to be), and ham-fisted messaging.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
