Review: Wet Hot American Summer

     A falling satellite, a talent show, a cook with PTSD, and a heroin binge. What do these things have in common? They all can be found in Wet Hot American Summer, a disjointed, manic spoof of teenage camp sex comedies like Meatballs. Co-writers David Wain and Michael Showalter worked together on MTV's sketch comedy show “The State” and later as part of the comedy trio Stella, along with Michael Ian Black, who also worked with them both in this film as well as on MTV. Their screenplay takes every opportunity to make a joke, and many of them are delightfully absurd. Many critics don't appreciate this film because I think they are trying to take it seriously as a traditional comedy. But that's not what it is, it's a send-up of the tropes teen sex comedies so often find themselves perpetuating. But this film doesn't limit it's focus to just spoofing comedies. It also spoofs a wide variety of movies including disaster movies and romantic dramas. Because of this, the film has too many different facets to be compared to any comedy that has come before it. The closest it perhaps the Zucker Brother's Kentucky Fried Movie, but this is still different because it manages to piece together a plot that can be followed throughout the entirety of the film. In my opinion, Wet Hot American Summer is one of the funniest movies ever made.

     The movie takes place on the last day of summer 1981 at Camp Firewood, a jewish sleep away camp somewhere in Maine. Tensions are high as campers and counselors alike scramble to find a member of the opposite sex to hook up with before the summer ends. The main character Coop (Michael Showalter) is attracted to Katie (Marguerite Moreau), and spends most of the movie trying to win her over and away from her sleazy boyfriend Andy (Paul Rudd). Meanwhile the camp director Beth (Janeane Garofalo) woos Henry (David Hyde Pierce), the astrophysicist who lives in the cabin next to the camp. The movie shows all of the hijinks that occur at the camp on it's last day. When Beth goes into town, some of the counselors go with her, and they take advantage of their time away from camp to indulge themselves in ever worsening vices, eventually leading to all them passed out in a heroin den, only to

 reveal them returning to camp, happy and healthy, just an hour later. Another funny moment involves the camp preparing themselves for the big baseball game against the rival camp. Counselor McKinley (Michael Ian Black) explains the teams rise by using every sports movie cliché imaginable. After the campers reveal that actually playing such a game would be trite, they decide not to. It's a hilarious breaking of the fourth wall, that wonderfully spoofs movies like Bad News Bears and  Heavyweights. Christopher Meloni plays the camp cook who was in the Vietnam war and suffers from PTSD, he talks to cans of beans and is just a wonderfully eccentric character whose embracement of his own quirks helps inspire Coop to embrace his inner strength. Molly Shannon is the arts and crafts instructor who is going through a very difficult divorce, but her campers come to her side and act as psychiatrists wise beyond their years to help Shannon get over her ex-husband. Amy Poehler and Bradley Cooper play counselors in charge of the big end of season talent show. Poehler an overbearing perfectionist eternally disappointed by the camper's lack of talent, and Cooper as the stereotypical gay man involved in musical theater (who of course is involved with McKinley, the other gay counselor, and together they have one of the steamiest sex scenes I've ever seen). And of course there's the falling piece of Skylab, a satellite which threatens to destroy the camp and can only be stopped by Henry the astrophysicist and the camp's nerdy kids. Clearly there's a lot going on in this movie, and because of all of the plot points packed into the scant 97 minutes. 

      I love this movie. It's the alternative comedy movie that was years before it's time. There has never been anything like it before or since. Now, that alternative comedy has finally become more mainstream (see the success of Zach Galifinakis et al.) we are seeing movies like Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters and Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie. These films capture the spirit of American Summer, what's more exciting is the talk of a Wet Hot American Summer sequel or even prequel with the entire original cast, now all stars in their own right. What would be really interesting is if they do a prequel because one of the jokes of this movie is that there are 30+ year old actors playing 20 year olds and if they were to do a prequel there would be 40+ year old actors playing teenagers. David Wain is one of the better comedic directors out there today and I am excited to see what he will bring to us in the future. 

Rating: 9/10 - Saintly