What to Call a Fellow Sunbathing off to the Side at Summer Camp? a Tangent

Inexplicably, execrable trash like Road Trip, American Pie and I'm betting the the upcoming American Pie 2 will garner undeserved notice for their idiocy, while the knowing, far more clever Wet Hot American Summer will languish, passing by barely noticed by the public. I’m praising it a bit more than I really should, because many jokes do fall flat but in the face of those other aforementioned teen comedies, Wet Hot… seems like genius. But despite those failed gags that flounder so confusedly you’re not even sure what the joke could possibly have been let alone simply not finding it funny, there are many many more gags that are hilarious.

The basic idea is a parody not only of American summer sleep-away camps and teen sexuality; but more to the point the film aims its deft satiric eye at the American teen-comedy films of the 80’s decade that took on teen sexual angst and hijinks as their subject matter. The film makes more fun of the summer camp film genre than summer camp life itself. The Porky’s series, Hardbodies, Fraternity Vacation, etc etc...the list seems depressingly endless when you look back on it. The only thing that takes the edge off its spoofing of the first Meatballs movie, is that no one in Wet Hot... comes close to the sheer comic aplomb and winning performance of Bill Murray which in itself lent that film its own kind of self-awareness, pre-dating even Wet Hot American Summer’s.

Along with that specific genre being targeted, the film also at times has fun with the filmmaking process in general, irrespective of genre—a sequence involving a counselor returning to the camp on motorcycle features one quick shot of him in a goofy black wig before reverting back to proper hair continuity. Similarly, when Janeane Garofalo as the camp head counselor, Beth, and that same counselor, Neil (played by Joe Lo Truglio) frantically search for another counselor Victor (Ken Marino) in the infirmary, the two characters haphazardly upend and mess up as many props as they can come across in their manic state. So that the audience isn’t confused, the actors perform the task with the proper obviousness to successfully alert the audience that it’s a playful attack on overacting—it’s quite skillfully accomplished despite it seeming like a possibly easy acting task.

It’s the kind of film so stacked with sketch after sketch and funny bits, that if you ask a dozen different people what their favorite joke was, you just might get a dozen different reports.

What I’m sure many will cite as the comic highlight of the film is the trip several of the counselors take into town and how their innocuous smoking escalates into mainlining heroin. It sounds irresponsible I know, but one of the film’s assets is its knowing comic effect by way of exaggeration. It ably mixes a Zucker and Abraham film comedy sensibility into its own satirical voice.

My own possibly favorite bit was when two counselors, A. D. Miles and Zak Orth as Gary and J.J. have discovered that their buddy McKinley (the very funny Michael Ian Black of TV’s Ed, and Spy TV) is gay, witnessing from behind a tree his secret summer-camp style ceremonial marriage to another counselor. He kept his true nature from his two pals. Later on, in the mess hall, Gary and JJ shout from the doorway, “Hey McKinley! Hey Brad! This is for you!!” We’re expecting some sort of cruel teen humiliation enacted upon the two gay counselors, but instead the two young men haul in a chaise lounge boxed in a crate as they say, “We didn’t know if you had one of these or not…” What helps make this bit so funny is not just the surprise turnabout in our expectation from a textual standpoint, that is, what we’re used to experiencing plot-wise in these movies, but the intelligently observed camera work in depicting the gag. The framing and whip panning between opposing sides of the mess hall expertly primes the audience for what they think will be a an embarrassing public exposure of the two lovers.

The cinematography throughout ingeniously captures the low-grade look of those summer teen comedies it spoofs. The film almost looks as though it were chemically aged to look as though it was pulled from a vault where it had been sitting since the heyday of those comedies in the 80’s. But then again, something gnaws at you, making you wonder how intentional the look is. The editing after all is rather unfinessed at times, and I don’t imagine that was an attempt to “capture” the amateurishness of those awful films. Many shots are cut too short, needing a few more frames at their tail end,
particularly the film’s very last shot (stick around after the credits are over for it).

So, like I said, there are a lot of gags that don’t work out very well (and no, not as bad as the title of this review though). When Beth pays her first visit to neighboring astronomer, Professor Neuman, David Hyde Pierce’s anguished and angry “NO!” when he’s pressed by Beth to speak at the camp, has an almost uncomfortable feel, as though you think the film might momentarily be considering a serious examination of a tortured individual and his trouble with women/relationships. Although you quickly get the gist of the quirky joke (one based on pacing in dialogue exchange) which you’ve seen before, it’s just one indication of the director’s still evolving hand at directing film comedy.

Molly Shannon’s turn as an emotionally abused Arts and Crafts counselor who is counseled by a very young camper is a joke we see the punchline to coming from a mile away.

But again, although many other jokes evade grasp, it’s worth pointing out that a lot more of them do hit their mark and sometimes side-splittingly.

On a side note, the film also seems a bit self-hating and anti-Semitic at times. The lampoonery of Jewish teen culture is one small part of the film’s satiric intentions, but it feels a bit sour particularly when after the one truly talented performance at the talent show, the audience of mostly Jewish campers booed when a crucifix was illuminated behind the performers. The various previous gentle stabs at Jewish religious/cultural observations can be accepted as part of the filmmakers experiences and their desire to comment on them, but that talent show bit felt rather ugly. What could they be pointing out? That Jewish kids are as capable of kneejerk prejudice as any other religious group? That actually could be a fairly brave statement from director David Wain and his cowriter Michael Showalter, if even unwittingly brave, but in tone, it feels perhaps better suited to some other film project.

The filmmakers do have some affection for their subject matter as witnessed by the few glimpses of genuine pathos as kids say their goodbyes at the end. Jokes seem conspicuously absent for a brief stretch and it seems to say that the familiarity the filmmakers had with the material which led them to accurately lampoon it also led them to pay at least a modicum of affectionate respect.

The acting is generally over the top in a pleasingly broad sketch comedy way, and, let’s face it, this film is an extended sketch comedy. Janeane Garofalo however maintains a more subdued approach to her performance without compromising the silliness of it all. Michael Showalter has a flair for acting out the goofily sensitive, semi-spastic, semi-together counselor Coop who pines for Marguerite Moreau’s, Kate. And Ken Marino does a nice job as the virgin counselor Victor, undergoing a steady physical and emotional decline as he races back to camp for what was a promising first time rendezvous with camp slut, Abby (Marisa Ryan).

Paul Rudd as the super-egotistical misogynist counselor who the girls lust after goes for absolute broke in his depiction of teen annoyance at every little thing (and thereby becoming hugely annoying himself). His displeasure at having to clean up a cafeteria mess he made is a tour de force in brattiness.

Keen attention to the costuming by Jill Kliber also helped give the actors a dead-on veil of period detail to work from.

The film falls short of classic status a la Airplane or The Naked Gun, but it’s way way above the likes of American Pie. Perhaps thought the audiences are of two completely camps as odd as that may seem. American Pie is really the Porky’s of the new millenium, it’s biggest fans being teens themselves, whereas Wet Hot American Summer is geared to those who already went through those years of very bad taste in movies and allows them to look back on that time. Perhaps in twenty years there will be a film taking potshots at American Pie, illuminating then what it’s too bad we all don’t see now—how truly awful and unfunny that film is.

BillTK’s TRIVIA TIDBIT: Young R&B singing star Pink was named Alecia Moore at birth. The fuchsia-haired singer received her unusual nickname when she was 7-years-old and a boy she had a crush on pulled down her pants in front of other children at summer camp. "Look!" one of them shouted, "She's turning all . . . pink!"