REVIEW: Take Your Teens To See ‘Tiny Fugitives’

In a world where teenagers are too often played by 24-year-olds masquerading as younger people, Tiny Fugitives is an absolute balm. The Michael Lewen-directed, Jacob Kaplan-co-written summer camp romp takes real, actual teenagers and lets them act like the age they are. That means the movie has its weak spots, but it ultimately feels emotionally authentic.

Tiny Fugitives is the story of Jacob Udell (Benjamin Pajak), a classic case of a teenager who struggles to find his place in the world for ten months out of the year, but during those two glorious months he spends at Camp Fineman each summer, he is the king of the world. With his best friend Charness (Aaron Harris) and his camp crush Tali (Isa Bernal Steiner), a plan is hatched to escape to “old camp,” the abandoned original camp site across the lake, and stay at camp forever.

The simple notions of “old camp,” where the rules were looser and life was simpler, or the chants of “ten for two,” evoking the ten months campers suffer without camp to bask in those special two each year, are more than enough to evoke all the nostalgia in the world from those who grew up in similar camp environments.

Tiny Fugitives is a classic case of coming-of-age, with an awkwardness that matches life.

That and the downright awkwardness of teenage entertainment. Their jokes make no sense, but to them, they’re the funniest things in the world. And you can feel that between Udell and Charness pretty seamlessly, even if the acting involved is at a teenage level.

The kids can’t execute their plan without getting past one major obstacle, however: the lifelong camp counselor who everyone fears and nobody respects, Bob (Johnny Knoxville). In some ways, Knoxville is the real heart of Tiny Fugitives.

Bob pulls off a few of his trademark physical stunts, of course. There’s at least a time or two where he probably took some licks to get a good, funny shot. But it’s the parallel emotional journeys that Bob and Udell go on that make his character stand out.

Udell is a teenager. He’s dealing with teenage issues. He has a huge crush that he won’t admit to, and it leads to some miscommunications and drama that feel authentic to the teenage experience. Remarkably, unlike in most romcoms altogether, the audience is keenly aware that Tali reciprocates this crush. So we watch both characters awkwardly navigate those feelings and how poorly they respond to perceived rejections.

Johnny Knoxville adds to the film’s heart in a noticeable way.

Bob, meanwhile, is a fully grown adult. But instead of mirroring Udell’s problems directly and making Bob’s problems seem juvenile, Bob avoids becoming a total caricature and deals with real adult challenges. He’s a little adrift and lonely in a world that doesn’t respect him or his passion for working at summer camp.

Sure, he has quirks that make the character and performance funny, but he’s also a pretty normal person who works for people half his age who don’t understand him.

Bob also never treats the kids like children. This is essential. In Tiny Fugitives, this leads to funny scenarios where a hyper-vigilant Bob chases kids across a lake and into an abandoned camp. But up close, he never talks down to the kids.

He mocks Udell the same way he’d probably mock anybody (and does). He speaks to the teens like they’re on his level, because they are. Kids deserve to be spoken to by adults the way they’d speak to anyone else, and it’s rare for a movie to do that so naturally, even if it’s coded in an adult-ish sense of humor.

Tiny Fugitives always stays right in the YA-audience focus, even with profanity galore.

Yet, Tiny Fugitives is by no means a movie just for adults. It may be rated R, but the rating is entirely for its foul language. Which is another blessing of the movie. Teenagers have some of the foulest mouths around. And when they’re not around any adults who try to curb their use of profanity? They curse out the wazoo.

The potty mouths and dirty jokes make Tiny Fugitives even more authentic, without the movie ever feeling like it’s just saying curse words for the sake of it. The cadence is just right; it doesn’t overdo them.

In fact, I would implore adults to take their teenagers to a movie theater to see Tiny Fugitives. It’s rare enough that a small-scale comedy receives a theatrical release, and that the movie is actually good and funny. But there’s entertainment and lessons for the whole family from Udell and Bob alike. 

Tiny Fugitives may have a somewhat anodyne screen presence because of the project’s nature, but its script is crisp, the characters are well-developed, and Johnny Knoxville adds the icing on the cake. Let yourself get wrapped up in the magic of camp for an hour or two, even if it won’t last forever.

Tiny Fugitives is playing now in theaters everywhere.