Thank God For the IFC
Camp. You must see this film. Right now. Get off your lazy Internet-surfing ass, and go. Why are still here? Leave already!

Ok, I can see you're going to need more convincing. Listen.

Camp is one of the greatest things you'll see all year, and probably in the past few years. It's so excellent in so many ways, there's not much I can say without ruining the magic you'll feel watching it, so I'll keep it short.

Basic plot: kids go to away to Camp Ovation for the summer, where they dance, sing, emote, and rehearse for their future life roles as drama queens, drag queens, fag hags and outcasts. Throw in a straight normal guy and let the games begin.

Camp has all the realistic teenage angsty awkwardness of Freaks and Geeks (which I still miss terribly) and Spellbound, all the heart and compassion of Strictly Ballroom (one of my all-time top five), and just heaps and heaps of laughs. Even better, it never resorts to gay clichés or predictable plot twists.

During parts of Camp I found myself cringing and holding my stomach, reliving the most horrifically self-conscious moments of my teen years. ("I like you." "Um, I like you too." "... cool..." or how about "You'd have to wear a crop top. I would worry about my rolls jiggling, but I'm just trying to be a friend!") Then I watched a few scenes through my fingers, thinking, "He's not really going to say that, he's not really going to say that, he's not really going to say that, ohmygawd he said that!"

The stars are all unknowns, which makes it just that much easier to work as an ensemble and not as a group of lesser characters revolving around one star, and the kids they found are insanely talented, putting all of American Idol and American Juniors to shame. If you want to see talent, and laugh, and laugh hard and then go "awwwww!" you need to see this film.

Now.