Ben Platt: "Theater Camp"

"Theater Camp" has problems: It's a rip-off of an Anna Kendrick movie ("Camp"), and it's inferior to the movie it is ripping off.

It's cute when a little kid tries to sing "Epiphany" from "Sweeney Todd," but we've already seen this joke. Kendrick did "The Ladies who Lunch" in her movie, "Camp."

But there is one lovely, weird story within "Theater Camp," and I wasn't expecting this: Secretly, the movie is about outgrowing a friendship. It's about being in your twenties and recognizing that a certain bond has changed, not because of any kind of enmity, but just because of life. At the center of "Theater Camp," a gay man and his bestie have a co-dependent arrangement ("We're codependent!"); they are not the actors they want to be, but at least they can have a laugh as camp counselors. Each year, they write a new musical together; this one show is the annual prestige project, and the selected children are informed that they're "the most talented performers at our camp."

There is obviously real love in this friendship, so you can sense that something is "at stake" when the bestie starts to drift away. She is missing rehearsals and fundraising opportunities; she is sleeping, at odd hours, in her car. She has neglected to write a final number for the show (and she is lying about her failure). Even on Day One, curiously, she hasn't done any preparatory work. These small discoveries are like little seeds; suddenly, you're aware that you're watching a mystery story, and the payoff is satisfying.

I understand that Ben Platt is a nepo baby--and perhaps another star would have struggled to net Will Ferrell and Amy Sedaris when "shopping around" an unfinished and intermittently mediocre script. But I liked the small gay story that Platt managed to tell. I thought this was worth the ten-dollar ticket.

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