Doc about Live Action Role Players doesn't go for cheap laughs

Charming documentary about Live Action Role Players (LARPers) contains its fair share of self-awareness but eschews the ridicule a lesser doc might employ in search of cheap laughs. As much about the game (NERO), as it is about the players, Monster Camp at times portrays the commitment to heavy gaming as an outlet for pretend, a cause for comfortable and safe social activity and as an escape from less-directed lives. While doc may prove marketable to NERO players, it will likely have its ultimate home on TV. With savvy marketing, film could be seen by broader audiences, as its charms do beguile.

NERO, which is something of a live-action version of World of Warcraft, is hard to take seriously, and though LARPers study the rulebook and learn a near-endless number of spells and actions to accompany the plotlines of their chosen characters, they can’t be said to take it too seriously themselves. They know its play and have long come to grips with its patent absurdities. No one is seeking to justify their hobbies, and that’s the root of the doc, this is a film about hobbyists more active than your run-of-the-mill model aircraft assembler. They go out for a weekend each season, study hard and construct elaborate costumes to play in a field for a 48-hour stretch. The leader of the group and owner of the Seattle franchise of NERO explains the responsibilities of his leadership: the sleepless nights, the unpaid labor and the stress are hazardous. On top of this, the owner can only manage, he cannot play, which means he misses out on the whole point of the game. The others show some pause when confronted with the possible end of the leader’s ownership of the branch. A poignant moment transpires after the winter session, when a player has to go from a weekend as an undead lizard beast back to his job as a stock boy at a grocery chain. The film is at its best in spaces like this where it pits the realities of the world against the memorable falsehoods these young adults build for themselves from the limitless resources of their imagination and a directly worded game manual. The play is a lovely diversion, but one that all realize comes to an end. In the universe of NERO, the players have clear direction, characters have agendas to manage and each can explore the infinite liberties offered by such boons as transformation spells and resurrection chambers. Whole lives can be remade and with highly involved costumes. When you think of it that way, the fantasy of it is perfectly alluring. Don’t we all have a little vampire or orc in us?

Stylistically, the film follows the mode of unobtrusive observation, but as the narrative moves further into its subplots and the drama surrounding the changing of guards becomes more threatening, the camera begins to take a more involved position. Director Cullen Hoback captured some golden moments in Monster Camp, glee that was quite real and, as such, painfully finite.

Distributor: Lifesize Entertainment
Director: Cullen Hoback
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 81 min.
Release date: May 9 Chicago, May 16 Winnipeg, May 30 Las Vegas, June 6 Maine