Review: Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma

Official synopsis: Kris, (Hannah Einbinder) a director making a slasher sequel becomes obsessed with casting the original film's 'final girl,' Billy (Gillian Anderson) leading both women into psychological and sexual chaos.

I have been trying to write this review for days, hoping some additional time would help me decide how I feel about the film as a whole, but alas, I'm still conflicted. Part of it is because it's gotten such glowing reviews and I wanted to love it just as much as everyone else did and how could I, a queer film fanatic NOT be 100% on board with this, but I think I have to accept that Director Jane Schoenbrun's method of storytelling isn't for me. 

Let's start positive. Camp Miasma is BEAUTIFUL to look at. The cinematography is gorgeous, the way Schoenbrum frames their scenes is perfect and you can tell they have a great love for slasher films. Not to mention the soundtrack rocks. Gillian Anderson is giving a an excellent campy performance, and Hannah Einbinder I just love overall, and I think she has a great moment in the second half where her acting skills get to shine. There's also a very on-the-nose Zoom meeting that is kind of perfect and how I imagine Jane Schoenburn actually pitched this film at one point. 

I don't need everything spelled out for me, but I find the overly allegorical writing to be more of a chore than an enjoyment. I went in expecting this after Schoenbrun's last feature, I Saw The TV Glow, but Camp Miasma has too many ideas that it wants to allude to at once. Some of them are obvious, others you might have to mentally dig for. The film even acknowledges it directly at one point. For me, all of this felt clunky. There are points in the film where we are watching the original Miasma film back with Kris and Billy, and I don't know that we needed so much of that. It also makes other scenes feel very repetitive.

This lack of balance affects the characters too. Billy on the surface is very campy and fun to watch, but when the film goes into her backstory a bit more, it plays second fiddle to Kris who is the much more stilted character. I'm actually kind of confused as to why Einbinder chose to play her the way she did.  I've seen a lot of comments online that Kris is "clearly autistic" and I don't love labeling something that when the people involved with creating this character are not saying she's on the spectrum in any way. Einbinder said she wanted Kris to feel uncomfortable, and while some of that does translate in certain scenes, the majority of the time I was just struck at how hard it looked like she was trying to feel awkward. If you've watched Hacks at all, you know she's a capable actress, and there's a part in the 3rd act where I was like "finally, she gets to do something!" but then the movie is over.

I appreciate a lot about this film but I also feel exhausted thinking about it. I hope it works far better for you than it did for me. 

Grade: C+