Summercamp!

Faced with the American school system's lengthy summer hiatus, harried parents must regard sleep-away camp as the answer to a heartfelt prayer. And if the (mostly) happy campers in Bradley Beesley and Sarah Price's meandering documentary, “Summercamp!,” are to be believed, their offspring feel exactly the same way.
Filmed at the Swift Nature Camp in Wisconsin, this sweet and shapeless movie focuses on a handful of youngsters struggling with similar feelings of alienation. There's little Holly, who resembles a sad Alice in Wonderland and is peculiarly obsessed with chickadees; talkative Spencer, at peace only when reading Tom Clancy; and aggressive Cameron, a delinquent-in-training who cries daily for his mother. Whether she reciprocates is not divulged.
Nostalgic as only a project steered by two former campers can be, “Summercamp!” is a riot of talent shows and campfires, canoeing and holistic clowning. (Your guess is as good as mine.) But whether suffering a fishhook to the eye or a Hacky Sack bag to the genitals, the movie's delirious subjects have no trouble sleeping.
“A.D.D. goes away at camp,” says a counselor, though as we watch a lanky young man brag about his highly medicated status, it's clear that the cachet lingers.
Perhaps the exhausted young counselor who escapes to her car for a few minutes of sanity is easier to relate to. “Death would be a sweet relief at this point,” she sighs. Oh, yes.
Da The New York Times, 18 Luglio 2007