Context Warning: The Floaters is an inherently Jewish film and I was raised in the Reform sect, so some things are going to be discussed that only those aware of the terms may understand. This warning is applied because the film does the exact same, just with no warning. Don’t worry, mishpocheh, you’ll be ok.
One of the biggest (in my view) misconceptions about the Jewish community is that it’s specifically a religious community, when, in fact, it’s as much about culture as it is faith. One can be Jewish without practicing the faith and one can be Jewish without fitting into the specific box stereotypes often construct. While the stories of our history begin in the Middle East, we’ve branched out (sometimes by force, sometimes by choice) to other countries, which means that our membership can include all manner of individuals. 2024’s A Real Pain, for all its faults, includes a convert, portrayed by Kurt Egyiawan, demonstrative of the less Caucasian-passing stereotype makeup of the faith. This matters because so many of the stereotypes bleed into cultural consensus, often impacting how the diaspora considers its own constituents. Enter The Floaters, a summer camp comedy from director Rachel Israel (Keep the Change), fresh from its premiere at Bentonville Film Festival 2025, which uses the complex facets of the Judaic community as the foundation for a tale about friendship and connection. While the narrative is often too unfocused in the first half, it finds its footing in the second, delivering a fun, funny, and sincerely heartwarming message about finding and holding onto your people.
Sarah Podemski as Mara in THE FLOATERS. Photo courtesy of K180 Studios.
Right before heading out on her European tour, guitarist/singer Nomi (Jackie Tohn) is kicked out of her band and in dire need of distraction. Like an act of bashert, her long-time friend Mara (Sarah Podemski), and camp director for Jewish camp Camp Daveed, is in need of a body to replace a staff member and thinks Nomi would be perfect. Who else to try to inspire a group of campers insisting on not signing up for activities than someone who’s feeling a little directionless themselves? What starts as a regular summer session has the potential to be life-changing, especially when the fate of the camp finds itself in the balance when an old rivalry is kicked back up by the neighboring Camp Barak.
First off, just because it’s an interesting bit of historical trivia, the notion that members of the Jewish community are Caucasian (White) is due to a court ruling in 1909 involving L.A. Officer George Shishim who was accused of not being allowed to be a police officer by someone Shishim had arrested under the pretense that Shishim, being of Middle Eastern origin, couldn’t legally be allowed to be a police officer (a position relegated to Caucasian/naturalized citizens). When the case concluded, the census definition of Caucasian individuals expanded to include groups of people from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Considering the hot topic being Jewish has become since the horrific October 7th, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas which defined the start of the current Israel-Hamas War, it’s important to note that even the U.S., for all its seeming support for Israel, is really just one law dismissal away from shifting an entire ethnicity to another group. While this may seem like a random tangent, the script by Amelia Brain, Andra Gordon, and Brent Hoff (The Love Competition), based on a story by Becky Korman, Lily Korman, Shai Korman, and Hoff, does address its politics, albeit not in a direct way. Aya Cash’s (Traffic Light; The Boys) Rabbi Rachel wants to give sermons on gender expression, politics, and sexuality; an ice cream social/group art project is developed around portraying the history of Israel; and characters argue about the validity of faith when it fails its flock in service of dead relatives. Having attended a few Jewish camps (Blue Star in North Carolina and Kutz in New York), this is about right for what it can be as kids grapple with their faith and individual identity. One moment you’re making wax candles in an art class and shooting rifles at the gun range, while in the next you’re in an argument over whether or not maintaining kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) is a hassle or a necessary tradition. Plus, the hierarchy of popular kids is gnarly, often worse than any secular camp I’ve attended (and I’ve gone to maritime, space, and art camps — it me. I am the nerd.). The trick is that the film lacks the teeth it needs to really dig into the politics it brings up, opting instead to use the moments for laughs, thereby deflating any real impact.
Seth Green as Daniel in THE FLOATERS. Photo courtesy of K180 Studios.
What the film absolutely does get right is the overall sense of what Jewish camp can feel like. From the setting, the real Camp Tel Yehudah, to the campers to the counselors, there’s a somewhat Meatballs-esque (1979) feel to the total project, just injected with a camp-related mishegoss. Nothing that would offend, necessarily, but the right kind of hijinks that make, for instance, spoiling ice cream both asshole *and* heroic behavior. It’s in this way that The Floaters embraces its oddballs, using them to point out that the only thing different between Jewish campers and secular campers is that some keep kosher and wear kippah while others don’t. Bringing this to bear are the storylines around Nomi and Judah Lewis’s (The Babysitter) Jonah. Opening with Nomi on stage, the audience comes to see her as a real musician with a provocation streak that not everyone gets, which makes the down-on-her-luck artist the prime person to help guide potentially wayward teens. By contrast, Jonah, the audience’s first camper lead-in, is full of piss and vinegar, seemingly more interested in rejecting all aspects of camp. Nomi and Judah’s storylines dovetail in the expected ways and, where they separate, enable the audience to explore the difficulties each experience without the judgement of the other. One thing that this script absolutely nails is that no adult has anything figured out and all kids think they know better than the adults around them. Having this all take place at a camp makes the highs higher and the lows lower, though, as Rabbi Rachel would remind us, there’s a duality to life just like there is to camp and it is beautiful both ways.
This means that our Breakfast Club crew of Floaters (the title given to kids who don’t sign up for activities) are made up of numerous stereotypes and stereotype breakers. We’ve got the Jewish American Princesses in the form of Dahlia 1 & 2 (Bekah Zornosa and Jillian Jordyn, respectively), the right-leaning jock called One Nut (Jacob Moskovitz), loner Tal (Thani Brant), camp pariah Lindsey (Nina Bloomgarden), and general nerds Tums and Wetspot (Jim Kaplan and Jake Ryan, respectively) — all the characters you need to portray camp stereotypes without digging into the cultural kind. Like all good camp stories, what we get at the start is changed by the end and this script, for all that it struggles with, does absolutely nail the eventual feeling of authentic comradery that makes one miss those hot and humid summer days and white-attired weekend nights. Most of the Floaters have a significant part to play in the success or failure of the plot, making each one as important to the experience as possible. Ryan’s (who’s worked on three Wes Anderson projects and one Safdie Brothers, among others) portrayal of Wetspot is brilliant in its understated naturalness and Cash’s presentation of Rabbi Rachel brings a certain quirky-yet-grounded modernism to the Tanach that counters conservative thought. Impressively, it’s not always the established cast who steal the show as Moskovitz (Isle Child), Kaplan (The Holdovers), and newcomer Brant possess such great physical and verbal delivery that they become the focal point in almost all of their scenes. In this regard, The Floaters is strongest when the kids are centered and their interactions drive the plot.
L-R: Jackie Tohn as Nomi and Aya Cash as Rabbi Rachel in THE FLOATERS. Photo courtesy of K180 Studios.
Which brings us to the troubling bit of the film — its viewpoint and structure to get us to where we need to be for the narrative to emotionally succeed. By opening on Nomi, the audience is keyed into the fact that the story is going to be about Nomi’s emotional journey from musician to counselor and the internal struggle of which position grants the most validation. The trick is that the path to get there is mired by the film’s need to spent time with the Floaters somewhat individually in order for their threads to converge, as well as serving the mighty cast of supporting Jewish actors like Steve Guttenberg (Short Circuit), Jonathan Silverman (Weekend at Bernie’s), and Seth Green (Robot Chicken). Their inclusions tickle older Jews who grew up watching them, yet too often feel like a diversion from the story rather than something that naturally blends in due to the amount of time they take up. Given their respective characters, there is absolutely reasoning for their presence, it’s just the amount of runtime real estate they utilize which would’ve been better spent on building up the Nomi/Mara angle to better parallel that of the Floaters. Cash is innocent, however, as the use of the rabbi is sprinkled throughout and only where wisdom needs dispensing, leading to one particularly lovely moment of consolation between the rabbi and Nomi that’s a natural seed for later. Because of all these side quests, the POV gets opened up too far, thereby reducing how much of Nomi we get and keeping the character fairly level throughout whereas the kids are given the bigger arcs. If Nomi wasn’t the first character we meet in the film, if she’d come in later, introduced after the kids were on their way to camp perhaps, the sense of her importance beyond mentorship wouldn’t be in place. But Nomi is our entry point to the story, so the absence of real exploration with her grows more apparent as the film goes on. Thankfully, the way that the kids are handled, especially as threads tighten, pays off wonderfully and the intended emotional journey is an absolute success.
Camp can be a magical place that sets you up in ways you can never expect. Just as Meatballs, Camp Nowhere (1994), Wet Hot American Summer (2001), or Theater Camp (2023), implies through the magic of cinema, heading off somewhere to spend a few days, weeks, or months away from family can empower someone to step away from themselves and grow into someone new. Doesn’t matter of it’s a secular camp or not, the mere attendance of said institution creates a bond with others that persists through time, a commonality that helps set you apart. The Floaters brings forth the sense that we’re all a little weird, a little uncouth, and very much human, deserving of care and respect, regardless of our gender expression, race, or approach to religion. There’s no better feeling than when this coalesces within The Floaters, capturing that sense of community that only comes from finding acceptance amongst your people — whatever form or shape they take.
Screened during Bentonville Film Festival 2025.
Currently on the festival circuit.
For more information, head to the official K180 Studios The Floaters webpage.
Final Score: 3 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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