Directed by Josh Yunis and written by David Kirkeby, Sarah Kruchowski and Jason Romaine, Camp attempts to be a throwback to the summer teen sex comedies that I grew up with, yet with its head and heart fully aware of the changes that have happened since then.
The thing you may not realize is that this was made in 2016. So maybe it's not as much a throwback as a frozen leftover.
Teens gather for their last summer at Camp Pearlstein, a place that even has its own twin rabbis, Jason and Randy (played by the Sklar Brothers), as well as traditional counselors like Hulk (Horatio Sanz) and Ruth (Sarah Kruchowski). Well, traditional is just a title, because they're stranger than any of the kids they're watching over.
The plot is what you expect: Jake (Brendan Meyer) is in love with Maya (Mychala Lee) but has to contend with Ezra (Ian Nelson), a peeping tom with a smart phone who just wants to see as many of the girls naked and in his bed as possible. And despite being prominent on the poster, Joey King is barely in this. She became a bigger star than most of the cast in the time this sat on the shelf.
I guess instead of trying to relive my memories of all the sleepover camps of my teen years -- which were only experienced on the TV and through VHS -- I should just go back and watch those movies. There are a few funny parts -- the Sklar Brothers are pretty funny -- but that strange subplot about the counselors dressing as Nazi specters is...weird. Like the movie forgets that it's a comedy weird.
