SummerCamp Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Did the kids who just won Tony Awards for Billy Elliott on Broadway ever have to endure this kind of criticism from a director? "Stop, stop, stop! It's 'toward.' Who is singing 'towards'? ... If you put an 's' on it, it makes it cheap, it makes it sound like you're from Long Island. Nothing against Long Islands ..." Thus begins Stagedoor, a documentary about a summer camp with superstar alumni such as Robert Downey, Jr., Natalie Portman, Mandy Moore, Bryce Howard, Zach Braff, Amy Ryan, Jon Cryer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Felicity Huffman, and director Shawn Levy. Our friends at SnagFilms have made the film available for free online viewing.

"What will life be like when theater geeks and show-tune queens rule the world?," asked Jorge Morales in his review at The Village Voice. "Documentarian Alexandra Shiva's cameras miss the moment some of the alpha divas cross the line, but the overwrought counselors make it sound like a showbiz Lord of the Flies." Ed Gonzalez of Slant notes that Stagedoor Manor was "the inspiration for former student and teacher Todd Graff's Camp, a film which never arrived at the truth of what this performing arts camp means for the Future Gay Men, Fag Hags, Three Straight Boys, and Broadway Stars of Tomorrow who go there every summer." The doc "remains goodhearted and agreeable throughout -- low on pathos and surprisingly critical of the drama-queen roles students and counselors adopt throughout their three weeks" at the camp.

After the jump, we've embedded the film for your viewing convenience. More information is available at SnagFilms.

When I was a kid, I never got to go to summer camp. Thus, my view of the experience was permanently twisted by Ivan Reitman's Meatballs and Sean Cunningham's Friday the 13th: free-spirited hijinks or death and dismemberment. For a different, possibly more realistic view, you might want to check out Summercamp!, a documentary that's available for free streaming over at SnagFilms. As pictured, sometimes all you want to do at camp is kick back and put up your feet.

Directed by Bradley Beesley (Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo, Okie Noodling) and Sarah Price (The Yes Men), the doc follows "the day-to-day drama of 90 kids let loose in the woods at Swift Nature Camp in northern Wisconsin." Our own Jette Kernion said it's "the kind of movie where you just relax your brain and let the images and sounds wash over you ... A lot of the film's appeal is nostalgia: the campers sing the same songs and do the same things most of us did in summer camp, whether we were at a Scout camp or a Bible camp or a weight-loss camp ... Summercamp! is really a film for grownups who want to remember their own days at summer camp, both the fun times and the embarrassing moments."

We've embedded the film below for your viewing convenience. More information about the film is available at the official site and at SnagFilms. Please be advised: NSFW due to occasional profanity.

Ah, summercamp ... the place where parents send children to gain independence, commune with nature, engage in healthy outdoor activities, and make new friends. When you think about it, summer camp is really the perfect setting for a documentary: The socialization, the bullying, the friendships and alliances, the tug of freedom and beckoning adulthood against the hollow ache of homesickness. Toss it all in with some nasty-looking camp food, add some kids with engaging stories and diverse personalities, and you've got a brilliant recipe for a light-hearted but touching documentary film.

Summercamp! is a documentary about, well, kids at summercamp and what summer camp is like -- the good, the bad and the ugly. Last night Cinematical's Scott Weinberg and Netscape anchor (and our awesome video producer for the Toronto International Film Festival) Alexia Prichard headed over to the Summercamp! premiere party, where The Flaming Lips, who provided most of the music for the film, were performing. Scott managed to catch up with The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne to talk to him about the music The Lips did for the film. Check it out, over on Netscape.

Summercamp! is a fun documentary—not dense with thought-provoking material, but the kind of movie where you just relax your brain and let the images and sounds wash over you. At times it feels like a feature-length Flaming Lips video, which is not at all a bad thing, except I kept wondering if Wayne Coyne would pop out from behind a tree and start somersaulting or building sandcastles. Co-director Bradley Beesley has directed several Flaming Lips videos, as well as the documentary about the band, Fearless Freaks.

Summercamp! follows a few kids and counselors around a summer nature camp in Wisconsin. A lot of the film's appeal is nostalgia: the campers sing the same songs and do the same things most of us did in summer camp, whether we were at a Scout camp or a Bible camp or a weight-loss camp. (Although none of the campers in this film had to suffer through a summer of leftover sun-melted Girl Scout cookies like I did when I was a camp counselor.) The gorgeously saturated colors throughout the film support that feeling of nostalgia.