Like the David Bowie song from which filmmakers Carina Mia Wong and Alex Simmons (Buddymoon) drew inspiration for the title of their documentary, We Can Be Heroes is a bit of a melancholic tale of individuals who recognize that they may not succeed but will still go down swinging. In truth, there’s nearly no greater victory than when one is still developing as the subjects of their film, a group of young adults at a week-long summer camp, are during their time at Wayfinder. Unlike traditional summer camps which may focus on social interaction through various activities (sport, archery, arts & crafts, etc.), Wayfinder specializes in live-action role play (LARP), enabling campers to prepare for and then experience a two-day adventure wherein they inhabit different personalities from their already-established one while battling out a fictional storyline. These campers are given the opportunity to explore themselves outside of themselves and are encouraged to get creative so as to empower themselves beyond the border of this single experience. Having its world premiere at SXSW 2024, the end result is deeply moving as we’re reminded that too often children are asked to grow up well before they should and often without tools needed to navigate the world.
A Wayfinder camper prepares to play the Adventure Game in WE CAN BE HEROES. Photo Credit: Peter Alton. Photo courtesy of SXSW.
Though there are many campers participating in the week-long experience, Wong and Simmons focus on a select few: Dexter, Cloud, Abby, and Miranda. We’re given formal introductions to Dexter, Cloud, and Abby, spending specific time with them at home before traveling to Wayfinder, getting the chance to learn a bit about them and why the camp is something they’re excited to experience. Wong and Simmons use fairly traditional documentary techniques here, capturing the three in their respective homes, utilizing a more relaxed talking head interview approach between shots of them packing or preparing, so that we feel like we get a sense of their personalities, as well as their respective stakes for going to the camp. For Dexter, it’s the girl he met last year and hopes to see again and get to know better. For Abby, it’s an opportunity to do something normal after having gone through extensive medical procedures for a condition that has a 1-in-3 chance of mortality. Of the central four, Miranda is given the least traditional introduction as we meet her while she’s in transit to the camp alongside one of her friends. Through the runtime, we’re given her story and motivations which are less dramatic but no less significant as they relate to her own personal development as a person. This gets to the heart of the documentary that each person who comes to the camp is dealing with their own battles and they come to this place to learn how to fight fictional ones in order to gain skills to engage in combat with the ones that remain once the game has ended.
Let’s take a step back and provide some context in case you, dear reader, are less familiar with LARPing. It is, essentially, a cosplay adventure fueled by each individual player’s imagination. That is to say, the participants all agree on the setting and circumstances and then dress the part for characters that they create. In the case of this specific camp, two of the counselors drafted something they call “The Last Green,” set in a world of faeries, so the participants will develop their look and persona to fit within it. For those with zero connection to LARPing, Heroes provides enough information to jump in without too much confusion, though the distance between acceptance or not may be wider as, despite the rise of nerdom and cosplay, there’s still a general sense that LARPing is just “dress-up.” It is wise that Wong and Simmons choose to focus their tale on one of the young adult sessions (yes, there is one for adults) as it may soften judgement from those with less of an understanding, enabling audiences to more easily slide into the narrative of Heroes by seeing it as something for kids. The thing is, though, that none of the participants Wong and Simmons put forward for us to follow are childish, not in the way that one typically uses the term. Slowly, over the course of the runtime, details are revealed that highlight just how experienced these kids are, whether it’s due to managing the day-to-day of illness, coming to terms with the end of adolescence, or attempting to reconcile what COVID-19 took from them that they may never get back. Each of these are heady concepts that we’re invited to experience with them through the lens of imagination that provides a safe space for self-expression and experimentation. It’s here that the emotional core of the documentary springs to life, and it’s something that the filmmakers are wise to take their time building so that when the undercurrent conflict within the characters comes up against the camp-specific adventure, the audience is primed to go into it with them as a compatriot and not as a spectator.
Don’t go thinking that Heroes is all sorrow and no levity. Whatever goes on with the campers individually, Wong and Simmons make sure to showcase a few moments of adventure prep that speak to the significance of what LARPing offers in the long run. A favorite moment is early in the film when the leader of the session, Judson, teaches everyone how to die. On the surface, it’s just a bunch of yelling and screaming, an act that seems easy but requires a great deal of ego reduction to get right. It’s a moment of freedom for the campers wrapped in giggles as they release their frustrations into the sky through yelps, shrieks, and cries of false agony. But then, when the game is on, Wong and Simmons respect the campers through a shift in perspective via altered cinematography and editing. The film has three cinematographers — Peter Alton (Buddymoon; Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado), Michael Lockridge (Buddymoon; Get Away If You Can), Madeleine Peters — which makes sense considering the amount of footage needed to be captured over the course of a week following different people that are not within the same groups. Their combined work, alongside co-editors Simmons, Rebecca Adorno Dávila (Moments Like This Never Last), Dan Crow, transforms from the typical documentary into an adventure tale, complete with visual cue as the aspect ratios shift from 1.85:1 (or something nearing it) to 2.39:1 (complete with letterbox). Rather than capturing the events as they happen, everything is then given a cinematic feel, as though we’re watching a lo-fi remake Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) — cheap in production value, but giant in heart. Wong and Simmons understand that there’s no real way to make “The Last Green” as real for us as it is for the participants as we’re several layers away from their perspective, but by utilizing the language of cinema, they can simulate it brilliantly. Add in an epic-sounding score by Dan Deacon (Hustle; Strawberry Mansion) and everything from the start of the game to any pauses in the action are presented to us as if everything is following a script, rather than a fairly loose, improvised play enacted by non-professional performers who are children joyously at play.
Play cannot cure what ails you, not really. It can act as therapy, it can help you regulate your emotions, it can give you the tools to manage how you respond to the stimuli around you, but when play is done, you return to who you are. But what ails you isn’t who you are, it’s merely an aspect of yourself. Places like Wayfinder offer opportunities to come together with other like-minded individuals, without judgement, without need for protection or defense, and to exist as you are. To LARP is to give yourself the chance to escape from your day-to-day, sure, but, in that form of play, you can also discover things that you can then take with you. Does it feel great to imagine yourself as a powerful mage, the greatest swordsman, or faerie royalty? Absolutely! But what if you can take the attributes that made you feel powerful and bring those back with you? Especially when the world is heavy with the consequences of choices that most of us don’t make (or wouldn’t make), the act of LARPing provides a chance for control and the chance to imagine themselves without the pressures that are constantly applied. With delicate care and respect for their subjects and the other campers, Wong and Simmons not only show us that play shouldn’t be restricted within a specific framework, but that the gains from it far outweigh any social pressure to conform.
Screening during SXSW 2024.
Available on VOD July 29th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official SXSW We Can Be Heroes webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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