The opening credit of Ilyssa Goodman’s “Next Level” are, maybe, probably the most attention-grabbing factor about it. They start with the credit score for the producer — and when was the final time you noticed that in a theater? — after which work their approach backwards to the solid, crew and director, as if to say that the truth that this film acquired made is, itself, probably the most noteworthy accomplishment of all.
“Next Level” is a song-and-dance drama a few summer time camp for teen lovers of this enterprise we name present. The viewers is knowledgeable, in no unsure phrases, within the film’s second scene, that this is without doubt one of the most prestigious organizations of its variety within the nation. But we’re knowledgeable in actually each different scene that the group employs solely two folks and is taking on area in a disused nook of a community-college campus.
The movie options an ensemble of younger actors, however our focus is on Kelly Hatcher (Lauren Orlando, the net sequence “Total Eclipse”), who has been kicked out of many different camps as a result of she’s such a maverick renegade and no person is aware of what to do together with her. Sure sufficient we shortly be taught, over the course of “Next Level,” what makes Kelly such a harmful affect on the opposite youngsters: She cares concerning the emotions of others, she doesn’t let the spirit of competitors damage her angle, she’s acquired numerous expertise, and she or he doesn’t break any guidelines. Kelly is so edgy she’s virtually a sphere.
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Kelly is, a minimum of, a pointy distinction to her roommate Cindy Stallings (Emily Skinner, additionally of “Total Eclipse”), who has earned the camp’s coveted “Miss Next” award three years working, and is decided to make it a clear sweep this summer time. She’s imply to her mom, she’s judgmental of her pals, and she or he by some means will get away with weird low-concept pranks like turning on the home lights in the course of Kelly’s efficiency. Which, as you possibly can think about, utterly derails her confidence as a result of, um, yeah, these are certainly some further lights.
Meanwhile, the youngsters from the basketball summer time camp throughout campus are right here, they usually’re going to create various battle by, um, displaying up and being well mannered, apparently. One them, Travis Perkins (William B. Simmons III), even will get to open their huge present in the course of the film, although he’s not a part of the dance camp, and we by no means noticed him ask to do this or rehearse or something.
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Gradually, Kelly kinds an harmless romantic attraction to a not-very-good basketball participant named Connor Olson (Hayden Summerall, the net sequence “Chicken Girls”), however Cindy will get in the way in which of that, too. Kelly and Connor additionally discover themselves competing towards one another in a dodgeball sport, boys towards ladies, wherein the women will get to offer the boys fabulous makeovers in the event that they lose.
And frankly, it’s onerous to say what’s weirder — the truth that the film performs the makeovers like a joke though the women clearly went overboard and made all of them look fabulous, or the truth that the boys are nonetheless carrying the make-up the very subsequent day, as if none of them might determine the best way to take it off. (Sleeping in make-up is unhealthy to your pores, dudes.)
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“Next Level” is amateurish, and there’s no animosity behind that critique. It’s simply what we’ve acquired. With the exception of Brook Elizabeth Butler (additionally of “Chicken Girls”), who performs Cindy’s gifted however overstressed underling Becky, a lot of the solid by no means absolutely inhabit their characters. They appear to be rattling off their strains and coasting on persona, and a few of them have extra partaking personalities than others. So be it. It’s onerous to get upset a few manufacturing stuffed with excessive schoolers wanting like a excessive…
