Images courtesy of Eammon Films and K180 Studios.
THE FLOATERS— 3 STARS
LESSON #1: ‘TIS THE SEASON FOR SUMMER CAMPS—With school out and the warmest season in full swing, ‘tis the season of summer camps and their matching movies. The sleepaway setting has long been a comedy and horror staple, from Meatballs, Friday the 13th, and The Parent Trap to Heavyweights and full-on satires like Wet Hot American Summer, and the delightful and crass new comedy The Floaters follows that in the same vein. It doesn’t matter the specialty or type of camp, assembling a hodgepodge group of characters is a foolproof and fast way of multiplying the classic coming-of-age arc we know and love.
The camp at the center of The Floaters happens to be a summer-long program in upstate New York, espousing Jewish leadership to families of that faith willing to pay to grant such a formative experience for their son or daughter. Reservation Dogs star Sarah Podemski plays Mara, the lead administrator of the fictional Camp Daveed, doing her best to hold her fledgling operation together with spit, glue, huztapah, and dedicated donors. Assisted by Rabbi Rachel (Aya Cash of The Boys) and veteran instructor Manny (Police Academy legend Steve Guttenberg), she finds herself down a counselor at the last minute and enlists her long-time best friend, Nomi (Glow ensemble member Jackie Tohn), to cover in a pinch.
Despite being great friends with Mara, Nomi isn’t exactly Jewish leadership material. The Floaters opens with her getting voted out of her own rock band (which includes current AEW world champion wrestler Maxwell Jacob Friedman, in a nice extended cameo), right on the cusp of a European tour and potentially singing with a record label. With her lifelong creative dreams snatched away from her, Nomi is spiraling in self-pity and takes the job out of desperation. Knowing full well Nomi is a rule-breaker, Mara assigns her an octet of special cases who are nicknamed the title of the movie.
The eight campers in question arrive for their first meeting like the cornucopia of carefully assembled stereotypes, ribboned with Hebrew roots, they are meant to be. There’s “The Dahlias” (Bekah Zornosa of Human Theories and newcomer Jillian Jordyn), two image-centered echo chambers, and the chummy knucklehead jock One-Nut (Jacob Moskovitz, now appearing prominently on the Legally Blonde spinoff series Elle). Opposite them are a trio of introverts, including Tal (Thani Brant, another debuting newcomer), an Asian Jew who clings to her “emotional support” iPhone, while the others are device-less, and the pair of card-playing Magic: The Gathering nerds named Tums and Wetspot (Jim Kaplan from Marry Me and Wes Anderson troupe regular Jake Ryan of Asteroid City). The final two, Jonah and Lindsey (Judah Lewis of The Christmas Chronicles and The Idea of You’s Nina Bloomgarden), a pair of ostracized contrarians, land somewhere in the middle of the two ‘verts.
LESSON #2: THE TYPE OF KIDS WHO GET SENT TO CAMP— What puts these eight together is the fact that none of them signed up for any other activities at Camp Daveed, forcing them into Nomi’s group and her task of putting on the culminating summer play. In classic ragtag fashion, this group of “The Floaters” occupies the first type of split found with every kid, regardless of demographic, who gets sent to summer camps: the ones that want to be there and those that don’t. Even with disinterest in other disciplines and the herd of cliques elsewhere, some in this group love the place, while others were forced here by their parents. Each kid wears that competing pluck or disdain on their sleeves.
The key one on that negative scale is insensitive and self-righteous Jonah, who is simmering with rebellion against his newly divorced father (grown-up Weekend at Bernie’s lead Jonathan Silverman) that he takes out on everyone else. His lackadaisical commitment and adamant refusal of seemingly everything turn into an expensive punishment and earn the bullying crosshairs of the “Kitchen Mafia,” embodied by the vaping Yoni (Max Samuels, in his feature debut) and the protected board member’s son, Evan (Ben Krieger of Song Sung Blue). Pushing the envelope as much as he can out of spite, Jonah becomes the catalyst of The Floaters, earning the playwright spot from Nomi to adapt the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah into a crude farce lampooning the power structures of elite academia, sex, and religion. Their group project is also elevated to become the crucial final scoring event of the Maccabiah Games competition against Camp Daveed’s nearby rival, Camp Barak, run by the golf-carting riding silver-spoon jerk Daniel (Seth Green, the big-name casting get of the movie).
LESSON #3: WHAT YOU GET OUT OF SUMMER CAMP— Leaning on the tried-and-true tropes of teenagers finding formative experiences with good guidance and the confidence-instilling act of opening themselves to others, this theater project transforms “The Floaters” and Nomi. There’s a great line of “Find your voice. It’s all you got,” that speaks to each member coming out of their shell, putting away their petty differences, and working together on a common—and, thanks to the twisted content of the play, extremely warped—inspiration. Hey, the roundabout and rambunctious route captained by Nomi counts as these previously resigned and discarded kids, and their equally miserable leader, getting something important out of their summer camp experience, which is always the grand goal.
Even so, like some motivational notes Rabbi Rachel gives Nomi to put in her pockets as simple reminders, sometimes “camp is the most important experience in life” and sometimes, “it’s just camp.” Each actor gets their victorious moment (no spoilers), and it’s a complete treat to behold in this sophomore feature-length effort from award-winning festival darling Rachel Israel (Keep the Change). Thanks to this mindful, liberating, and thorn-removing bonding happening alongside the rehearsal buildup, the ultimate payoff of The Floaters is seeing the performance of Jonah’s wacky play during the climax.
The unbridled and uncensored creativity of it drops jaws, elicits laughs, rattles beliefs, and even wets a few tear ducts because, like many of the assembled principal adults and shareholders of the camp competition, you cannot help but be proud of the maximum effort from the campers no one expected to reach. The misfits showed themselves to be real artists, now comfortable in their own skin, who say something real behind the bullshit and come to care about the place they first regretted. Watching The Floaters all fall into place, the same uplifting and impressed feelings extend to the film itself.
LOGO CREATED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1410)
