Camp, Camp, Camp It Up

Hello my field daises!

Today I am reviewing a movie that I’ve watched grow for many years. If you don’t know what I mean, check out my other blog post, “Top Three Things To Know Before Watching Camp Takota”
The movie is basically a modern camp story, with a girl named Elise (Grace Helbig) who loses her job and then gets cheated on by her fiance named Jeff (Chester See). After a drunken night of loathing, she drunk calls her old camp director and asks if she can be a camp counselor. A family taking their daughter to camp goes to pick her up the next morning, so she has no choice but to go.

haha you gotta watch the movie to get this reference.

I was sort of disappointed with the acting done by Chester. I’ve seen him do better work, but his performance in this movie fell flat. I didn’t understand how he could be so unattached to Elise’s advances in the beginning, and yet have the desire to come charging through the forest looking for her at the end of the film.

I suppose I am being a bit hard on Chester, but that is because I have seen him do some amazing work like the video below.

Also I’ve seen him play the douchebag boyfriend with some depth. Here is Chester playing Duke, a character based off of the WongfuProductions’ mini series, Funemployed. Such a hilarious video!

Anyway I did enjoy Sawyer’s cameo. He appeared as Walker Paige, a young author who wrote the Midnight Moonlight series, an obvious ode to the the genre “young adult novel turned into blockbuster hit.” Walker has a crazy fan base, much like the screaming frenzy that ensued when Twilight hit the big screen. Walker didn’t have any lines, but his kissing scandal became an important catalyst, sending Elise to Camp Takota.

 

At the camp, she meets her old friends Maxine (Mamrie Hart), who is next in line to be Camp Director, and Allison (Hannah Hart), who has taken her mother’s job and is now the head cook.

I love how Hannah plays a chef in this movie. Mostly because I have been watching My Drunk Kitchen for so long. I was always curious what Hannah’s cooking would look like sober, and by god she’s a natural! She doesn’t have very many lines in the film, but I think she has the best one liners such as her comment on Elise’s “business casual” outfit and “appealing kitchen work.”

 

This is one of my favorite shots from the movie. It’s just so cinematically and symmetrically beautiful!

And I can’t skip over the chemistry between Elise and a farmer from over the river, Eli (Chris Ridell). Their moments are some of the best parts of the movie. Their meeting was a little awkward. I don’t want to give it away, but it involved onions and a broken beer bottle. After that they have another moment, which is even more awkward and for Elise, terribly embarrassing.

The storyline is very cookie cutter Hollywood: an old fashioned summer camp in need of funds saved from being run by dic(k)s by three girls.

In my opinion, I wouldn’t have minded seeing a Digital Interactive Camp with a 4G tower and live Twitter and Tumblr feeds in the mess hall. But maybe that’s just because I am a Media Studies major.

It’s ironic that these three girls are fighting to save an old traditional camp from becoming a modern digital camp because in real life, they use social media daily to promote their  new videos and interact with their fans.

 

Sexual innuendo acronyms are commonplace on Grace’s channel. Here’s one for how to start over:

But I suppose all this longing for the good ole days has some truth. One of my favorite moments in the movie is when Maxine talks to the campers and their parents about preserving Camp Tokota. She talks about the memories you make at camp, and when you end up trying to tell people about your time…

 

There is a valid fear that as we become digitally interconnected, we are also losing our familiar patterns of perception. We are losing the feeling of living in the moment. Instead we are looking to make sure we carefully document our moments.

If a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

If no one takes pictures of your event and puts it on Facebook or Instagram, did it really happen?

I remember when I was a kid we didn’t have cell phones. My friend Mandy and I were out tailgating at an Auburn Football game, so my Dad gave me his cool sleek Razr cell phone to call home when we needed a ride. The phone ended up dying, and we got in so much trouble for not calling. But I don’t recall the scolding we got. Instead I think of the happy fleeting moments, such as when we ran inside the coliseum, giggling and laughing as we tried to escape a sudden downpour.

I am equally worried and ecstatic to see how all of this new technology will affect our younger generation. Yes I admit, I would have LOVED to have a smart phone when I was a kid. It would have made life so much simpler. But I also am grateful that I grew up in a time where smart phones never existed because its absence makes me truly appreciate the advances our society has made. Who knows? We already have phones that can read our fingerprints. Holograms could be in the near future.

 

Camp Tokota may not be the prettiest girl at the dance, but she sure did win Homecoming Queen. It’s so inspiring to see how these humble vloggers and YouTubers have come together to make this “punny” and unforgettable movie. 10 years ago YouTube didn’t even exist!

That’s it for today!

Love ya’ll and thanks so much for reading!

Hope you have a daisyish day!