Director: Rachel Israel
Writers: Amelia Brain, Andra Gordon, Brent Hoff
Stars: Jackie Tohn, Sarah Podemski, Judah Lewis
Synopsis: The film follows struggling musician Nomi who accepts a last-resort job from her overachiever best friend Mara: mentoring misfit campers, the “Floaters,” at their childhood Jewish summer camp.
Summer camp is a rite of passage for many people. It’s a place you don’t really want to go to meet people you don’t want to meet to learn archery, crafts, and about yourself. As much as many of us grumble about it at the beginning, camp is a bubble where you can do something or be someone you never thought possible. You could meet a best friend or at least have people who will remember you for something. Even if they forget your name, you will be a part of a story they may pass on to their kids on the eve of their first camp experience. The Floaters is about the triumphs and angst of the camp experience.
This is where the script for The Floaters really sings. The writers, Amelia Brain, Andra Gordon, and Brent Hoff, have captured this memorability and legacy of camp. They have a classic ragtag story of a down on its luck camp mixed with the campers no one wants putting on a “let’s save the day” skit. It all comes together toward the end where these campers really find a way to connect with each other and Nomi (Jackie Tohn) finds her voice again by becoming a mentor. It’s really heartwarming.
The bad part is that almost everything before the last act of the film is so very bland. The laughs fall flat, the subplots are very uninteresting, and most of it feels like it was written by folks who wanted to set the action in their childhood, but kept the present day setting and then struggled to add in phrases that today’s teens might actually use. It all feels a bit off and that may be a problem of too many voices wanting to be heard. While there are three credited writers, three additional people are credited with a “story by.” Comedy is collaborative, but this feels like there were many competing visions at play. It’s why the enemies to lovers storyline feels rushed. It’s why Nomi’s backstory and our understanding of her as a character is rushed. It’s why there is a rival camp with a bully camp director and camp bullies within our protagonist’s camp, which feels like too much antagonism for very little pay off on either front.
It may also feel vague and bland because it’s a very niche camp. The Floaters is about a Jewish summer camp and while there are many universal themes, there are many things that keep a broad audience at arms length. The camp itself, Camp Daveed, is very inclusive, bringing together the Jewish diaspora within the U.S., but it still feels like many of us are left out of the joke. Context and some explanation are provided most of the time, but it can slow down the action when someone has to explain something the other person on screen already knows.
It really is that third act that saves the film. The throughline of the floater group is one of redemption for all of them. The alt-right kid finds empathy. The two Queer kids find strength. The apathetic cool girls find community. All of them realize that they are worth something. If the film was far more focused, it could have been really good. Nomi is an O.K. protagonist, but her story isn’t the most interesting. Her catharsis is earned and her arc is wrapped up nicely, but she feels like she’s in a different movie altogether. A movie worth watching, but still tonally different from the one we get.
The Floaters is a film that survives on nostalgia. Its universal aspects do outweigh its niche appeal. It may be bland and one or two subplots that achieve some sort of end catharsis are unearned, but overall it’s got a lot of heart. That’s what we need out of these summer camp films is a clear arc from zero to hero. The Floaters at least delivers that amongst everything else that’s crammed into the film.
