Images courtesy of Quiver Distribution
SUNNY DANCER— 4 STARS
As seen with crassly creative The Floaters earlier this year and in the new release Sunny Dancer, the well-worn summer camp movie is alive and well. As overused as the setting may be across several genres, there are lanes for storytellers to visit camps catering to certain microdemographics to add a little unique character to the tropes. In The Floaters, it was a teenage Jewish summer camp in upstate New York. For Sunny Dancer, the bunkhouse location shifts across the pond to Scotland and its population of exiled teens without parent supervision. True to selecting its own specific cohort theme, these Scottish teens, as you quickly find out, carry far greater baggage than sleeping bags and suitcases.
Run by camp president Patrick (the brilliant indie casting coup of Tony winner and five-time Emmy recipient Neil Patrick Harris), the CRF Camp in Sunny Dancer behaves like any other camp with gender-segregated cabins and a myriad of co-ed team building and outdoorsy activities. Cussing with their Scottish brogue, the teen attendees look and sound like a typical mix of people their age who either love being there or are dumped off from homes who are getting a break from their strong personalities. However, with a small swerve, CRF Camp is a special facility for those suffering from or have survived the Big C of cancer.
LESSON #1: THE MEDICALLY FRAGILE VS. THE MEDICALLY COMPLEX— Thanks its selective enrollment, the CRF Camp carries the nickname of “Chemo Camp,” a moniker not warmly embraced by all. While the camp seeks to be a place where those survivors can get a “normal” camp experience, the limitations are still obvious and accounted for. It’s tricky not to have looked-down-upon labels—like “medically fragile” or “medically complex”—spread from the camp to the campers.
Our main character of Sunny Dancer feels those layers of stigma strongly. At home, Ivy (TV starlet Bella Ramsey of The Last of Us and Game of Thrones) is a cancer survivor with a clean bill of health who, though lifted from previous burdens and challenges, is becoming a distant and unavailable teen for her parents Karen and Bob (Jessica Gunning, recently seen in The Magic Faraway Tree and Little Women’s James Norton). No amount of parental urging of “don’t forget to have fun” at an embarrassing parental dropoff can lift the dismissive scowl off her face.
LESSON #2: TEENS ARE GONNA TEEN— Luckily, upon meeting a quintet of fellow nonconformists—Ella (Jay Kelly’s Ruby Stokes), Jake (Daniel Quinn-Toye of Pressure), Maisie (newcomer Jasmine Elcock), Ralph (Earl Cave of The School for Good and Evil), and Archie (Conrad Khan of TV’s The Burning Girls), the surly Ivy sees that she’s not alone with the teenage urges to test newly granted extended lifespans. Teens are gonna teen and rebel against any rules. The previously destructible are choosing to be indestructible. Besides, what can be more harmful or difficult than the medical nightmares they’ve already endured?
In a way, the Sunny Dancer campers have earned a little recklessness returned to their lives. Each member of the mashup friend group has their maverick goal for the summer, starting with Ella and Ivy’s quests to lose their virginity. With the charismatic and equally interested Jake, Ivy has her clear preference, while Ella aims to score with the hunky older counselor Tristan (Bridgerton cast member Louis Gaunt) even though Archie secretly pines for her attention. Between chugging booze and sneaking around boundaries set to the energetic pop soundtrack curated by music supervisors Phil Canning, Este Haim and Zachary Dawes, the unmistakable camaraderie creates an infectious good time in film that skips the more American Pie-esque cartoonish shenanigans and gross-out humor.
That’s all well and good for Ivy and the bunch in Sunny Dancer until the wrong choices get people hurt or cross Patrick’s authority. In a brilliantly centered performance of gravitas from the usual big-time showman, Neil Patrick Harris, as the present symbol of leadership and purpose around these ruffians, represents the thematic balance between honest definitions and necessary guidance. In one the best scenes written by director George Jaques (Black Dog), Ivy takes what is supposed to be her sit-down meeting for punishment and lashes out vehemently at Patrick with a bevy of accurate and misplaced digs. Instead of engaging in a fruitless power struggle, Patrick calmly takes the opportunity to remind the preciousness of life she’s been granted with a dose of life experience and reminders of those who came before her who weren’t as lucky as her.
LESSON #3: “THERE WAS A TIME YOU WOULD HAVE WANTED TO BE HERE”— Patrick springboards from this clash with the great line of, “There was a time you would have wanted to be here,” referring to her former debilitated state. While the scolding may not have stuck, Ivy finds a new trajectory that turns rancor into enrichment. In Sunny Dancer, we never see these kids sick, but the actors are rising to shed that old weight with every curt lamentation that doesn’t turn into a woe-is-me monologue and every tallied personal victory that defeats their former frailty. By the end, without a single cheesy scene of group applause or high-fives, these young folks come to not be defined anymore by their illness or treatment, telegraphed perfectly by Ivy’s thankful admission of “Here I’m just Ivy, not ‘Ivy with cancer.’”
Despite what looks like a melodramatic premise of coming-of-age tropes in the hands of George Jaques, it is quite astonishing all the unexpected places Sunny Dancer takes its drama, including a very risky sledgehammer twist which I dare not divulge. Nevertheless, the friendship-building relationship dynamics inside its marked weekly chapters are fascinating to behold. The progress of these characters bettering each other through shared plights and rambunctious misadventures carries an illusion of realness and natural charm from watching these excellent young actors interact and enliven the scripted scenes. This film quietly asserts itself as one of the best indie gems of the year.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1430)
