This summer it’s time to head back to your teenage years with the new film from Roadside Attractions Summer Camp. Following a group of three friends as they attend a reunion for the summer camp of their teenage years, the movie pulls in a large cast of veteran actors to round out this fluffy summer comedy.
Summer Camp brings friends Ginny (Kathy Bates), Nora (Diane Keaton), and Mary (Alfre Woodard) back to the summer camp of their childhoods for a 50th reunion. Not only is this the first time the friends have been back together in years, but it’s the first time they’ve returned to the camp in decades. With everything in their lives that has changed, the group of friends have a hard time reconnecting to the camp and each other. But their week at camp brings them closer together and lets each woman find out the next steps in their own lives.
The movie is light, fluffy, and pretty low-stakes when it comes to risks. Some parts are over the top like when Ginny’s good friend “Martha” has their old beaten-up cabin renovated into a fancy one in mere hours (or less in the movie). Sure, you can do a quick renovation of any space to spruce it up, but that will most likely not add space and change the structure of the space.
The core group also has run-ins with the popular girls as adults, who. of course, now love Ginny since she’s a well-known self-help author. The once mean girls now seem to be more than happy to be the girls’ friends, although they never gave the time of day as kids. Add in a run-in with their teenage crushes, the movie brings back all of the teenage emotions that the women associate with those summers years ago.
With moments that are almost iconic and linked to summer camp movies like food fights, archery lessons gone wrong, and even white water rapid trips – the movie may bring back some camp memories for viewers as well. However how many will actually make you want to go back to that summer camp of your youth is questionable.
If there’s only one complaint about the movie, it would be that some actors played it too safely or too close to the personality we’ve seen them play repeatedly. Most specifically, Diane Keaton. Not only is she the quiet and quirky character we’ve seen her play characters in the past, but the same wardrobe that we’ve seen before too (on and off the screen). She’s simply playing herself, add in the thick-rimmed glasses and the boulder hat she loves to wear, and there you have it. Does that mean her character wasn’t good or not fitting for the movie? No. But it does mean it wasn’t anything new, or notable. It’s just seemed almost disappointing in a cast of veteran actors.
Summer Camp is now playing in theaters.
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About Summer Camp
Summer Camp tells the story of Nora (Keaton), Ginny (Bates), and Mary (Woodard), who have been best friends since being inseparable at summer camp. As the years have passed, they’ve seen each other less and less, so when the chance to reunite for a summer camp reunion arises, they all take it, some begrudgingly and others excitedly. Each of their lives might not be where they’d imagined, but one thing is for sure — Nora, Ginny, and Mary need each other, and summer camp reminds them why.