Netflix & Spill: A Week Away
What in the Hillsong?
When I turned on A Week Away I did not know it was a Christian Camp Musical Teen RomCom. About 5 minutes in, Sherri Shepherd (yes the legend herself) shows up and bursts into song “I opened up the Bible and I read about me, and you!” I tried to Google these lyrics and many more from the song- finding nothing. Meaning this might be one of the only original songs in the film.
Our Christian Musical is mainly all reimagined Contemporary Christian Music songs (CCM). From Amy Grant to Steve Curtis Chapman, both of whom apparently have cameos in the movie- proving I have never seen their faces in my life. From notable music video director Roman White comes the story of a teenage boy Will (Kevin Quinn) who is in the foster care system and moments away from being sent to juvie for stealing a cop car, ACAB! Thankfully! Kristen (Sherri Shepherd) comes into Family Services and says they want to foster him and he can attend summer camp next week with her son George (Jahbril Cook). Obviously he’s like, “camp...yeah no thanks…I’ll pass” and his case worker is like “ok juvie it is!” And then he’s like “actually I do love camp.” At this point we (me) don’t know it’s a Christian movie yet. Then Will says yes to camp and Sherri Shepherd bursts through the door, dances down the hallway, and sings God This! God That!
Side note: Maybe I should do a LITTLE research before watching these movies?
At this point it’s about 8:10am on Friday and I’m watching the movie before I head to my brother’s house to watch perfect angel baby Olive. I pause the movie and whip my head around to my Dad’s makeshift desk and say, “DAD THIS IS A CHRISTIAN MUSICAL?!” and erupt into laughter. He fully ignores me. I’m not gonna lie, the first song hit me so fast and so hard I was kinda stoked. No one is more qualified to write a review about a Christian summer camp musical than me.
From 6th grade-12th grade (you could go to camp starting in 3rd grade but my parents thought I was too young) I attended a week long christian summer camp in Lancaster Pennsylvania that I LOVED called Camp Calvary! Ask anyone who knew me at that time. Then when I was a sophomore and junior in college I worked at a traveling day camp owned and operated by Chick-fil-a (you read that correctly). Let’s just say I know Christian Summer Camps!
It was my dream to work at Camp Calvary. I remember people I knew said how near impossible it was to be a counselor. One summer my friend bff Becky (iykyk) said we should both apply to work in the kitchen for the summer. High schoolers could do that. A step closer to living my dream, being in my favorite place in the world all summer and with my best friend who lived hours away? Sign me up. Unfortunately, I never fully got my parents on board but it didn’t matter because they were hiring one maybe two people for kitchen staff. I never made it on payroll.
Camp Calvary was such a magical place. Zip lining. The Blob. Giant hills. Water slides. Mud Pits. Paintball and more. Is it just me or is paintball this extremely Christian thing? I didn’t know anyone else who played regularly but my sister had multiple guns and would play with church friends all the time. I was too much of a scaredy cat. Anyway, I always had a crush on every single counselor growing up. I always “rediscovered” my faith and fully fell in love with my relationship with God. I made lifelong friends (who I haven’t spoken to since mid college). A few I’m still Facebook friends with and they’re all married or in the MLM game, usually both.
When I worked this traveling day camp in the South Eastern United States I had one really fantastic summer. So I went back! I didn’t have anything else to do…and it was horrible. Lightning doesn’t strike twice I guess.
Now that my camp resume is out of the way let’s chat A Week Away. Our lead, Will, gives me such strong Zac Efron 2006 vibes. He has this side smirk, one eyebrow taller than the other, flared nostrils, and you know, “sings”. After he says yes to camp they are immediately on a big bus en route to camp. The rest of the movie taking place there. Once they arrive at Camp Aweegaway (if you say A Week Away quickly) the entire cast breaks into song. Here we meet every minor character through a pretty fun dance break. George, Will’s new foster brother, has a long time crush on fellow camper Presley (Kat Conner Sterling) but cannot get the nerve to talk to her. Will of course, being the new bad boy in town locks eyes with Avery (Bailee Madison), also the Camp Director’s daughter (David Koechner). Turns out camp might not be so bad after all.
Immediately, Will decides to lie and say he’s George’s cousin (this is absurd to the teens because Will is white and George is black but they can’t question him). Will and George then have a cabin all to themselves, like okay get it I guess! This is where Will says if he keeps up the cousin lie and hides his true identity he promises to help get George with his crush. Obviously, no one will catch on to the fact he’s a bad boy ™ who tried to sell his high school on Craigslist. Except they will because apparently there’s a file on him in the office and the mean kid will find it and blackmail him. Basically both couples fall in teen love within a few days and even….kiss! Something that would never be allowed at any camp I attended. Even as a counselor no ERs (exclusive relationships) allowed. No one-on-one time until after you finish your 9th week of camp. I was famously in an ER both years I worked at camp. One was my friend Garrett and I who were bffs with our Camp Director Ross and we never got in trouble for our ER because Ross was low key a part of it too (he would never admit this). My second year it was my friend Megan and I who totally bonded by our dislike of most everyone we worked with. That year was such a mess no one cared so we took one of the Ryder trucks we drove city to city and went to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama on a Saturday off, just the two of us! It was amazing! Love a good ER!
Camp Aweegaway had a lot of Christian camp tropes and cliches. All Christian camps (and maybe secular idk) I’ve been to love splitting the kids into teams or TRIBES! Christians love to call their community of friends and family their tribe. At the Camp Calvary we were split into two teams every year with some kind of theme. Once it was Firefighters vs. Police Officers another time FBI vs. CIA. One team will win by the end of the week. Camp Aweegaway had tribes, a blob, paint balling, big come to Jesus moment around the fire, camp wide games, a talent show, and a winner at the end of the year. All camp traditions. They also do a lot of intermingling during swim time which would never happen at Camp Calvary. Will and Avery have a heart to heart about Avery’s lack of Mom and Will’s lack of both parents. They really connect and understand each other, this is before he’s outed. One night Avery breaks down crying and there is a great mashup of Our God is An Awesome God/God Only Knows. Which I’ll admit was a banger. I could see this mashup being sung in Evangelical churches around the country by Easter this week.
My favorite character was definitely George, it’s Jahbril Cook’s debut and his voice is good, his acting was some of the best and even his cheesy dialogue hit “Lying is kind of up there on the top ten ‘thou shall nots.’” I’d definitely watch where he goes from here because the kid has ~it~. A Week Away is not overtly religious in theme. We never see a daily bible study or morning sermon. No prayers before meal times or personal devotion time written into your daily schedule. The main thesis of the film is that you are loved by God no matter who you are. It’s clear they mean “no matter who you are'' as in a teen criminal with no parents but the sentiment is still nice. It reminds us to be kind to everyone. Riddled with song and dance and typical YA romance A Week Away doesn’t give us anything new. Depending on the audience it can be very Jesus-y or it can be very wholesome and clean family fun. Nice to have that versatility on Netflix.
Next week we watch Madame Claude, which seems French.