SUMMER CAMP (2024) review
written by: Castille Landon
produced by: Stephanie Heaton-Harris, Diane Keaton, Tyler W. Konney, Dori A. Rath, Alex Saks & Mariela Villa
directed by: Castille Landon
rated: PG-13 (for sexual material, strong language and some underage smoking)
runtime: 95 min.
U.S. release date: June 1, 2024
It didn’t take long for me to mentally check out of “Summer Camp” and wonder if the picturesque sleepaway camp the movie was set in was a real place. Checking out is not a good sign, but viewing the movie’s trailer can make my response understandable. It turns out Camp Pinnacle is indeed an actual place and is located somewhere near Hendersonville, North Carolina. As I wondered how three talented septuagenarian actresses could sign on to such a tiresome exercise in easily digestible entertainment, I was reminded that sometimes actors sign on to projects simply for who they will be working with and where it will be shot. I can’t say that these actors signed on because they would be glamping together, but it’s not a stretch to consider.
Camp Pinnacle is indeed a real place that’s been around since 1928, and it’s where writer/director Castille Landon set “Summer Camp”. The movie opens with what we can assume would be the summer of 1969 (in case we lose track of this, the Bryan Adams classic is played during the end credits), where we see three tween girls bond over the eight weeks they would spend many summers together. Introverted Nora (Taylor Madeline Hand), who prefers the stability of life indoors as opposed to the spontaneous variety that the great outdoors offers, is new to camp and receives acclimation help from Jenny (Lindsey Blanchard), a camp veteran. Jenny also winds up helping Mary (Audrianna Lico) when she has her period for the first time while at camp. The trio become inseparable, to the point that they are given their cabin: Sassafras. The motivation behind that decision isn’t exactly clear, but it seems more to serve the machinations of the plot.
Reflections on the memories these girls made at camp long ago are told to us by Jenny, who now goes by Ginny Bloom (Kathy Bates) and has become a self-help guru (although she hates that term, though). Her mantra is the rather blunt, “Get your Shit Together!” which is plastered (along with her face) writ large on the side of the giant RV she drives. Her voice has a relatable longing as she draws on such nostalgia. She’s recalling simpler times when she and her two friends were close and free from the trappings of adulting. This could be ripe material to delve into such longing or even the loneliness of one’s twilight years, but instead, Landon has opted for familiar silliness and reheated camaraderie.
As Nora catches us up with what her friends have been doing all these years, or at least currently, it becomes obvious where this movie is going. Ginny, who has always been able to convince the other two to do something, is at it again. She’s convinced Mary (Alfre Woodard) to take time off from nursing. She enlists her help to persuade widowed bioengineer Nora (Diane Keaton) to break free of her workaholic (there’s always one). Ginny’s goal is to get the two of them to join her at a weeklong reunion of former campers and fellow peers at Camp Pinnacle. Life has happened, and the trio aren’t as close as they used to be, and maybe such an event will rekindle their friendship.
Of course, they all wind up at camp because, well, it’s called “Summer Camp”. They are welcomed by camp staffers Sage (Nicole Richie, reminding everyone she’s an actress) and the egregiously annoying Vick (Betsy Sodaro, acting straight-up bizarre), who acts like an overzealous mall cop. As they settle, the ladies find that the two hunks from their prepubescent years have also returned: Mary’s crush, Tommy (Dennis Haysbert) and Nora’s crush, Stevie D (Eugene Levy). Their arrival should be no surprise to an astute viewer (who’s seen movies within the past couple of decades) since we see a black boy (Zachary Connor) and a white boy with dark bushy eyebrows (Gabe Sklar) interacting with the girls in the flashback opening. And if the names Dennis Haysbert and Eugene Levy show up during the opening credits, you can bet those boys will turn into these two actors. We can count on seeing how these two calm and confident fellas stereotypically unnerve and awaken the characters played by Woodard and Keaton.
“Summer Camp” is wholly predictable, with most of it vacillating between implausible and repetitious. As campers arrive, they have to turn in their phones. That’s understandable if these were tween or teen campers, but senior citizens? They need their phones more than teens! I’m not talking about seniors checking their Insta feeds or updating their Tictok, but most folks I know in their 70s and 80s keep everything with their phone, like when to take their meds. It’s ridiculous (and not in a hilarious way) how the staffers reassure campers that they will have access to a camp phone and a computer, both of which look like they are remnants from 1992. The phone thing will play out later on since Mary’s dismissive husband (Tom Wright) can’t function without her, and Nora can’t function without working, so she needs her phone.
The issues the three friends wrestle with while at camp fall into many of the cliche trappings we’ve seen before in comedies. Who these ladies are apart from these issues is absent in “Summer Camp,” and that’s too bad. But that doesn’t stop Landon from putting the actresses through “crazy” camp activities to either loosen up or “find themselves” along the way. This means we must endure a handful of scenes like a rapid rafting excursion that gets out of control and a massive food fight that breaks out in the lodge involving all AARP campers. Hold on now…I know a lot of senior citizens, and I find it hard to believe that ANY of them would be down for a food fight. Oh, but that’s what reconnecting with your youth does, right? Right? No.
The only curious draw to “Summer Camp” is seeing these three award-winning actresses in a movie together. All of them have done some great work in their career, so even though the material is bound to be easily digestible (with inevitable stunt doubles), why not see what they do with it? Alas, the material here, with its simplistic characterization, is worse than the trailer indicated.
Barely added to the mix are the three fellow seniors (led by Beverly D’Angelo), who played the camp rivals called the “Pretty Committee” back in the day. These characters were bullies when they were girls, and an opportunity is missed to delve into who they are now. Are they still just as obnoxious and superficial? I guess so, sadly.
Considering the kind of movies Keaton has said “yes” to over the years, it’s no surprise that she’s in “Summer Camp.” She plays a variation of the essentially the same character she’s played in the two “Book Club” movies, “Mack & Rita”, and “Poms” where her default setting is stuck on “wacky”. Watching her here definitely makes me want to dig up the work she did back in the 70s to be reminded that, at one point, she took on challenging and stimulating projects. While it’s always a delight to see Woodard show up, the character of Mary does her no favors, save for some solid chemistry with Haysbert. Woodard and Haysbert have one of the rare hilarious scenes involving them working on some phallic pottery. As Ginny, Bates has the most significant part of the three and probably the most apparent character arch. She’s a delight and gives it her all, but it’s only until the third act where the character comes across as a real person. Her career status was flimsy and barely convincing, but that has more to do with the writing than Bates.
With all the time that has passed since these three friends have truly bonded, one would think that reuniting at camp would offer up some poignant late-night conversations. Instead, we get Bates passing out vibrators that look like a rabbit’s foot and a pep talk where the three rev each other up by bringing each other to shout, “I’m a Bad Bitch!” Ugh. In the end, we get is a lousy break-up-to-make-up finale that feels hurried and tacked on. All of that aligns with the lame goofball antics throughout “Summer Camp” that only aim for easy-going laughs.
As a director, Landon has delivered her share of movies for a specific demographic, like the three adaptations of romance novels “After We Fell,” “After Ever Happy,” and “After Everything”. While there’s an audience for just about anything, it would’ve been nice if “Summer Camp” aimed for something beyond simply a specific demographic.
