As Labor Day nears, summer will soon come to a close… but what if it didn’t?
That’s the premise of the new movie “Tiny Fugitives,” set at a Jewish summer camp and starring a rag-tag team of tween boys and Johnny Knoxville. The movie will hit theaters this September and looks to be a raucous comedy full of summer camp hijinx.
In a trailer released this week, a young boy narrates a summer camp manifesto deeply familiar to anyone who lives “ten for two” — that is, just getting through the school year so you can spend two glorious months at camp. “Sleepaway camp, where all your problems melt away,” the voiceover says. “Us camp people are just different.”
A montage of bear hugs, Color War antics and dancing on a table in a cafeteria that looks eerily similar to my own summer camp food hall ensues.
The summer camp scenes are then juxtaposed with the same boys at school, where a bully smashes food in the face of Jacob (Benjamin Pajak) while Max (Aaron Harris) laments about the specialness of camp to a teacher or guidance counselor played by Rob Yang, who explains that no, “They did not have Jewish summer camp in Korea.”
“There is nothing waiting for us back home,” Jacobs then says. “What if we never went home?”
The boys hatch a plan to stay at summer camp beyond their allotted session, but no worthy plot can go on without an equally worthy antagonist. Enter: Johnny Knoxville’s Bob, a 50-year-old lifetime counselor determined to keep them in check.
Knoxville is of course best known for the “Jackass” franchise, in which he and his friends perform a series of stunts ranging from recklessly daredevil to severely grotesque. It’s a perfect match for a movie centering around a group of 12-year-old boys, whose penchant for potty words (to put it mildly) and sex talk (a new acronym is coined for “over-the-pants hand jobs”) runs rampant in the trailer.
There’s also some promise for sweet moments. Eagle-eyed viewers may notice what looks like a mock wedding, complete with a chuppah and a towel being worn like a tallis. And the fact that it’s a coed camp means there’s a possibility for some tweenage love (anyone who’s ever been to summer camp knows that camp relationships can get very serious, very quickly).
The film is directed and co-written by Michael Lewen, who has previously produced “Trainwreck” and “The King of Staten Island,” and who I am assuming is Jewish based on the fact that many of his friends wished him “Mazel tov!” on Instagram posts about his wedding and the birth of his son, Judah.
It was co-written by Jacob Kaplan, whose very Jewish Instagram content has had the Kveller staff laughing for years (please see here, here and here). He also acts in the film and serves as an executive producer. This is Kaplan’s first feature film.
The young cast is full of impressive up-and-comers. Benjamin Pajak has previously appeared in “The Life of Chuck” and on Broadway in the Tony award-winning musical “The Lost Boys” alongside Shoshana Bean. Aaron Harris was in “Matlock” with Kathy Bates.
“Tiny Fugitives” is coming off the heels of another Jewish summer camp movie that delighted Jewish viewers this summer — “The Floaters,” starring Jackie Tohn and directed by Rachel Israel. Are we entering the golden age of Jewish summer camp cinema? As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the one that started it all — “Wet Hot American Summer” — this year, I for one say this is a very welcome new era.
“Tiny Fugitives” will be in theaters Sept 18, just in time to watch it and atone for laughing at a little boy trying to explain what third base is.
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