HBO Max's Class Action Park ignores the darker side of New Jersey's notorious water park, opting to focus instead on nostalgia

The Muse

"In reaching for a poignant framing for the park’s chaos, Class Action Park feels more like a collection of nostalgic, folklorish stories than what could have potentially been a deeper interrogation into the park’s creation and legacy," says Hazel Cills of the HBO Max documentary on the notorious Action Park in New Jersey, adding: "The bulk of Class Action Park feels like a fun trip down memory lane with interviewees telling crazy stories accompanied by crude animations. But the moment the documentary strays from its campfire tale quality and confronts the elephant in the room for the movie’s first three-thirds—the deaths that occurred at this supposedly fun waterpark—Class Action Park misses an opportunity to tell a bigger story. The movie interviews just one family on record who lost a son to Action Park in the 1970s, a death that was misreported in the press as an employee accident rather than that of a paying park-goer. And while it’s a brutal segment, it’s merely a somber detour for a movie that would much rather go back to talking about the good ole’ days."

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