This enjoyable movie seemed to me to be the tip of an iceberg...I wonder if it were originally produced as a pilot for a TV series, and if so, I wish it had been successful in getting the show on the air. Honestly, I would have been interested in spending much more time with these kids and their singing talents, and the movie had way more talented and attractive characters than were really made use of during the movie. It is not really a criticism to say that some of the plot issues were not resolved, but were only introduced, or, contrastingly, some characters whose parts in the story were minor (or nonexistent) seemed to be more powerfully featured in some of the concluding musical numbers--like one's appreciation of their triumphs had to be understood intellectually rather than truly felt emotionally. Was this a flaw in the script, or actually a sign that so much more had been planned and hoped for?
The movie was marketed and presented as gay-positive, and yet the main character, the dominant guy of all the action, was a straight guy "wanted" by all the girls and all the gay guys--the assumption was he could pretty much have whomever he wanted (and pretty much did), whereas the main gay guy remained an oddball and a second-stringer to the straight guy, even in this camp where gay boys supposedly could finally find acceptance and a place where they unquestionably would belong. In real life, the straight boy has all the power because he is in the majority, whereas in the camp, he has all the power because he is in the minority. Even the fact that he had some kind of mental disorder did not diminish his assumed position as the "alpha male".
My favorite character was the little blond gay boy who couldn't believe that there is a sport director at the camp, nor could he care less, either. He had way too powerful of a singing voice and was way too cute for only the two or three lines he had in the whole movie. Again, as I said, the tip of the iceberg...this movie seemed to be preparing for so much more...otherwise, its individual parts were greater than the sum of its whole. But go see it anyway, if only for the entertainment value of the truly talented singing. There's more in there, but what's in there might not interest the average movie-goer who will have to mine it out.
The movie was marketed and presented as gay-positive, and yet the main character, the dominant guy of all the action, was a straight guy "wanted" by all the girls and all the gay guys--the assumption was he could pretty much have whomever he wanted (and pretty much did), whereas the main gay guy remained an oddball and a second-stringer to the straight guy, even in this camp where gay boys supposedly could finally find acceptance and a place where they unquestionably would belong. In real life, the straight boy has all the power because he is in the majority, whereas in the camp, he has all the power because he is in the minority. Even the fact that he had some kind of mental disorder did not diminish his assumed position as the "alpha male".
My favorite character was the little blond gay boy who couldn't believe that there is a sport director at the camp, nor could he care less, either. He had way too powerful of a singing voice and was way too cute for only the two or three lines he had in the whole movie. Again, as I said, the tip of the iceberg...this movie seemed to be preparing for so much more...otherwise, its individual parts were greater than the sum of its whole. But go see it anyway, if only for the entertainment value of the truly talented singing. There's more in there, but what's in there might not interest the average movie-goer who will have to mine it out.