Wet Hot American Summer

Wet Hot American Summer
January 23, 2001
Eureka Pictures
Comedy, Historical, Romance
DVD
B

This is a parody/homage to the "summer camp" movies of the late '70s and early '80s, from Meatballs on out.  Some of the time it does feel like one of those movies, but one that just somehow didn't get released for two decades.  (It's set in 1981.)  And other times it feels like a dark comedy, as seen particularly in the "going to town" montage.  Then there are the very not '80s touches, like the gay wedding.  Not everything works in the movie, but enough does.  This go-round I was most impressed with the soundtrack, with no less than three title songs, although the best song is "Higher and Higher," which is used for the training montage.

The cast has many good performers, with the best of lot probably Paul Rudd, cast against "nice guy" type as Andy the good-looking "asshole."  Not only does he insult and cheat on his girlfriend, but he lets kids drown and throws witnesses out of a moving vehicle!  I was also of course quite fond of one couple, by then thirty-six-year-old Janeane Garfolo as Beth the camp director and forty-one-year-old David Hyde Pierce as Henry Newman the astrophysics professor.

Bradley Cooper, then 25, has an early role as Ben, the gay Drama counselor, while Amy Poehler (then 29) plays the overly critical Drama counselor Susie.  This time, Molly Shannon is Gail von Kleinenstein, the Arts & Crafts counselor going through a divorce.

Director/co-writer David Wain would also write and direct a couple other Paul Rudd movies I own, Wanderlust and They Came Together (the latter pairing Rudd with Poehler).  Co-writer Michael Showalter would also co-write TCT, but he doesn't seem to appear in it, as he does here, in the dual roles of Gerald "Coop" Cooperberg and Alan Shemper.  Peter Salett, who's Guitar Dude here, would be Manfreddie in Wanderlust.  Nina Hellman, who's Nancy here, would be a Protester there.  And Michael Ian Black, who plays Ben's boyfriend McKinley, would be Trevor in TCT.

Zak Orth was Mike in In & Out, is J.J. here, and would be David Newbert in Music and Lyrics.