Listen. I loved musicals and theatre. I still love musicals and theaters. This scratched that itch. That sentimental, overwrought sense of belonging that’s not as true as it’s built up to be but that we hold onto anyway. Platt is much more bearable when playing the entitled ass we know him to be now, and Edebiri continues to steal the show. She should’ve had more, but I am always saying that. Her equal in scene stealing is Patti Harrison, who takes what could’ve been a strait laced antagonistic role and imbues it with this quirkiness and longing for connection. She’s a weirdo who’s forced herself into this business mold, and she gets laughs out of the smallest lines just by how she says it and the faces she makes.

Noah Glavin is the returning actor who plays a role most different from the one he had in the short, and who illustrates the differences between them. In here, he’s the heart of it, showcasing his range with a sad puppy energy that makes you wish the best for him. And he ties a bow on it all with a killer performance at the end, that’s not played for laughs at all and let’s him just own it. It was really refreshing in that sense. In the original short he was a selfish dance instructor who back stabbed his friend and co reached to keep his job, and here he’s the one espousing the value of this camp, this family, and saved them all.

Is the former more true to the harshness and selfishness of the business? Sure, probably, and I can get preferring the meaner, perhaps more honest edge of the original short. But this made me laugh more. Dammit, it made me cry. Could they have done a lot more with the mockumentary format, or Edebiri? Also yes. But that final song really harnessed the power of a good, sentimental finale. theater is all about getting lost in the illusion. The fact is, I had fun getting lost in this one for an hour and a half.

When "Joan" (Amy Sedaris) unfortunately has a seizure caused by the strobe lighting (or perhaps the singing) at an am-dram performance of "Bye Bye Birdie", her profiteering and none-too-bright son "Troy" (the Channing tatum-esque Jimmy Tatro) finds himself in charge of her summer camp for would be, young, theatricals. This school is largely held together by "Amos" (Ben Platt), "Rebecca-Diane" (Molly Gordon) and the technical factotum "Glenn" (Noah Galvin). Next door there is a much more exclusive operation and they have their eyes on the valuable land, so when foreclosure looms they all must rally round to raise some cash and save the place from demolition. Can they? Do we actually want them to? I don't come from a nation where there is much of a summer "camp" culture, and so much of this just came across as an overly contrived concept with all of the precociousness of "Glee" but none of the character of "Fame". The kids are largely just annoying, as is the dithering storyline between the two adult principals. There is one decent song but you have to wait a while for that, otherwise the POV documentary style of photography offers an intimacy into the lives of some professional no-hopers charged with instilling some semblance of hope into these youngsters that just didn't engage me. I was on my own in the cinema when I watched this - it's better than that, but only just.

Films in the mockumentary genre can be thoroughly satisfying entertainment experiences when done right, as seen in such examples as “Zelig” (1983), “This Is Spinal Tap” (1984) and “Fear of a Black Hat” (1993). But the key, as noted above, is in doing them right, something to which this latest such offering from writer-directors Nick Lieberman and Molly Gordon can’t lay claim. The problem here is that the picture is too hit or miss on too many fronts: When it’s on, it’s brilliant and genuinely hilarious (especially in the film’s final act); however, when it’s not, it tries too hard to be funny and often ends up falling flat. That’s unfortunate, since the picture’s high points – as good as they are – simply aren’t enough to make up for the low ones. This faux look into life at an Adirondack theatrical-themed summer camp for youngsters and teens has a few too many diverse story threads that stray from the picture’s central premise. Then there are the characterizations, which are truly well developed but focus more on the camp’s adult staffers than on the characters that should matter most – the campers themselves. What’s more, the narrative relies heavily on the use of graphics to move the story along, but they frequently stay on the screen for unduly short durations, a practice that becomes progressively irritating over time. In all, this is a production that feels half-finished, one sorely in need of tidying up to make it work as well as it might have. Perhaps that’s due in part to the picture’s volume of material – 70 hours of footage – but that abundance of images likely wasn’t culled as effectively as it might have been. It feels as if the film aspires to be like one of Christopher Guest’s mockumentary projects (most notably “Waiting for Guffman” (1996)) but just doesn’t quite come up to the same level, despite a strong underlying basis that should have leant itself well to this format. To be sure, this is by no means an awful release; it makes for a modestly pleasant at-home streaming option for a midweek evening. It’s just regrettable that it doesn’t live up to what it could have been.