Plot
After a series of Broadway flops, songwriter Bert Hanley (Dixon) goes to work at a musical camp for young performers. Inspired by the kids, he finds an opportunity to regain success by staging an altogether new production.

Release Year: 2003

Rating: 6.3/10 (3,687 voted)

Critic's Score: 55/100

Director: Todd Graff

Stars: Don Dixon, Daniel Letterle, Joanna Chilcoat

Storyline
Misfits in their lives back home, a group of young people live it up at musical-theater camp. While the sports counselor is completely ignored, the kids' spend all their time in rehearsal for a grueling schedule that involves a new show every two weeks. Several personal stories come to the fore. Is talented golden-boy Vlad honest in his feelings about Ellen? Can cross-dressing Michael have a relationship with his parents? Will one-hit-wonder musical playwrite and now camp counselor Bert Hanley remain mired in drink and cynicism? Fireworks are in store when Fritzi, who slavishly serves glamour girl Jill, is finally told to get a life, and the parents of Jenna, whose jaw has been wired shut in a compromise to avoid being sent to "fat camp", learn a valuable lesson at the summer's big end-of-season benefit.

Cast:
Daniel Letterle - Vlad Baumann
Joanna Chilcoat - Ellen Lucas
Robin de Jesus - Michael Flores
Steven Cutts - Shaun
Vince Rimoldi - Spitzer
Kahiry Bess - Petie
Tiffany Taylor - Jenna Malloran
Sasha Allen - Dee
Alana Allen - Jill Simmons
Anna Kendrick - Fritzi Wagner
Don Dixon - Bert
Robert Orosco - Emil
Stephen DiMenna - Glen
Omar Edwards - Alston
Camilla Millican Samuelson - Hillary

Taglines: You can't fit in when you already stand out.

Release Date: 5 September 2003

Opening Weekend: $54,294 (USA) (27 July 2003) (3 Screens)

Gross: $1,628,154 (USA) (12 October 2003)

Runtime: 114 min

Trivia:
Based on director Todd Graff's experiences at a drama camp called Stagedoor Manor.

Goofs:
Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, Vlad is sitting with a skateboard. He is later seen riding the skateboard but it doesn't have a design on it as it did in the beginning of the movie.

Quotes:
[first lines]
[scene opens on Dee, Shaun and Company singing "How Shall I See You Through My Tears"]
[as singing continues, scene shifts to Vlad in his bedroom]
Vlad: To all the critics out there, I know they're gonna review this, and I know they're gonna try to knock me - is it OK if I say this to the camera, Amber? - Okay. I only am who I am 'cause I was born that way. I have a gift, and I'm trying not to be selfish about it, but to use it. Okay? If you're gonna knock me for that, that's your problem. Jealousy will get you nowhere. And I'm gonna keep rockin' on.
[scene returns to singing cast, then shifts to Ellen's bathroom]
Ellen's Brother: Ellen, what's the matter with you? Don't tell Mom I'm taking you to your stupid junior prom.
Ellen: [in shower] Get out of here!
Ellen's Brother: Your brother - how gross is that! Come on!
Ellen: They don't know you're my brother. Please Ben you have to - I'll pay you.
Ellen's Brother: Find someone who's not related to you. Loser.
[...]

It's not perfect but I found it highly enjoyable from start to finish and consider it one of the better musicals for quite a few years

Rating:

After a string of musical flops, the career of Bert Hanley is at rock bottom, which leads him to take up a position with a musical summer camp. When he arrives to teach he finds a diverse group of boys and girls who have come together to put on one musical every two weeks, leading up to one final show at the end of the camp. He is angry at the children's naïve ease of acceptance of the musical lifestyle and their apparent comfort with who they are, feeling that they are not helping themselves for when they go out into the real world. However will their energy for the music win him over or just frustrate him?

I can understand why this film didn't make a massive splash when it hit UK cinemas – basically I saw a trailer for it then the next time I saw it, it was on DVD! It is very different from your average teen movie as well as being different from many musicals (not always a massive genre in themselves). I will be the first to admit that this film has weaknesses but I enjoyed it from the opening song, through to the final show – there was barely a moment where I was bored or uninterested. The basic plot is a mix of minor story lines around an array of characters – various romances happen, lessons are learned, eyes are opened and friendships made. It all sounds rather ordinary and, in a way, I suppose that it does do just what you expect it to. However, pretty much every other aspect of the film comes together to lift the film to be better than the script suggested it would be.

Primarily, if you hate musicals, then avoid this for it is a big part and, for me, it served as a superb foundation. The overall soundtrack is really good and is an enjoyable mix of music but it is the actual musical numbers that really lift the film. They are really enjoyable – both the well known ones and the new songs; they fit in well with the narrative and act as good bits of punctuation. The narrative could have been stronger but the musical numbers mean that even if the narrative causes a slight dip, then the songs are there to provide a lift.

The characters are very well drawn, even if they don't use them that well. The fact that we have so many diverse teenagers who seem at ease with who they are is perhaps rather difficult to swallow but it certainly helps make the film feel a bit different from the usual. At first I was a bit put off by how the gay characters all seemed to be of the 'flaming' variety, but as the film went on I got over this and got to know their characters and not just their characteristics. More impressively, the whole cast (mainly teenagers) are really good – they cope with the demands of the narrative (and the limitations as well) but they are very impressive when it comes to the musical numbers. One time tutor at one of these camps himself, writer/director Graff does a really good job with the direction here – it never feels as low budget as I imagine it must have been and he frames many shots in involving ways.

Overall this is a standard teenage movie with all the hurts, lessons, romances and friendships that you would expect from the genre but it manages to rise above many of the genre by having different (if unrealistic) characters, roundly good performances and frequent musical numbers that never let the fun level of the film dip for too long.

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