I was introduced to this movie when I was in college, and whenever it comes up in conversation I will recommend it to anyone who listens. I'd like to think it is a really stupid movie that know it is really stupid, and is therefore....really smart. Does that make any sense? Eh, I'm probably over-analyzing this one, but I don't care. I love this spoof/satire of the 1980s summer camp movies. It takes the humor you know and know well and manages to spin it into this odd stratosphere where nothing really is what you'd think. I don't even know where to start so brace yourself.
It's the last day of summer camp at Camp Firewood in Maine in August, 1981. Camp director Beth (Janeane Garofalo) is trying to get all her campers through that one last day, and also stop her camp counselors from completely destroying the camp and themselves in the process. She's got no idea what is in store for Camp Firewood on this day though. Beth also has started to notice Henry (David Hyde Pierce), an associate professor at a local college living near the camp, but that's the least of her problems. Nothing is going to go as planned today, and there's nothing she can do about it.
To say this movie has an actual plot in the typical sense of the word is misleading. The movie comes from the mind of star/writer Michael Showalter and director David Wain, both members of MTV's skit show The State that ran between 1993 and 1995. Much of the cast from The State is working together here again, bringing an odd, unexplainable chemistry to this comedy that plays like a series of running gags. Title cards tell you the time as the day moves along (including one epic training montage that takes 15 minutes in real world time, watch it HERE), the antics getting creepier and weirder as the day moves along. One commenter at the above video said it is one of the stupidest, dumbest, most inane movies they'd ever seen. I'm hard-pressed to disagree, but I loved it anyways.
Because there's no way to describe the humor and the cast without some ridiculously detailed descriptions, here's a cliff notes version of what's going on. Counselor Coop (Showalter) is a bit of a nerd and has a major crush on fellow counselor, Katie (Marguerite Moreau), who has a boyfriend, Andy (Paul Rudd), who is in general an asshole. Andy is more interested in making out with Lindsay (Elizabeth Banks). Arts and crafts teacher Gail (Molly Shannon) clicks in an odd way with one of her students as she copes with her recent divorce. Gary (Zak Orth) is trying to hook up McKinley (Michael Ian Black) with any girl, but McKinley's gay and hooks up with Ben (Bradley Cooper) who is also running the talent show with Susie (Amy Poehler).
Meanwhile, Victor (Ken Marino) and Neil (Joe Lo Truglio) are leading a river-rafting trip, but Victor wants to get back to camp to hook up with the slutty Abby (Marisa Ryan). In the kitchen, counselor Gary (A.D. Miles) is dealing with cook Gene (Christopher Merloni), a Vietnam vet who's become unhinged since returning home. That's some, just some, of the chaos going on. Some bits are funnier than others, but the ones that work are amazingly funny.
The humor is of the odd, eccentric off the wall variety. It's the little things that work. Scenes end and characters don't know what to do. Kids run off into the woods, Orth's Gary walks off a pier randomly, Showalter's Coop goes and joins the other counselors standing against a wall. Merloni's Gene spouts the bizarre things he likes to do only to pretend he never said it. A trip into town ends in a crime spree with a drug trip. Rudd's Andy loses two kids to drowning (it's funnier than you'd think) and takes them to a "special pizza party," leaving them in the woods. Andy later pouts over cleaning up his breakfast on the floor...that he threw there. Lo Truglio chases Marino because...well...because he does. The talent show is horrifically awful, saved in the end by a camper (Kevin Sussman) with a special power, especially needed when part of a satellite comes crashing down on the camp. Yeah, you read that right. Satellite crashing into summer camp. Like so much of the movie, all I can say is go with it.
I realize this is going to sound pretentious as I write this, but this is a movie you either get or you don't. You're either going to go along with the bizarre, schizophrenic nature of the movie, or you're going to question what kind of lunatic made this movie. I've recommended it to people knowing they probably won't like it, but you have to give it a try. If you hate it, I apologize, and I owe you one.
Wet Hot American Summer <---trailer (2001): ****/****
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