Runtime: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Rating: R
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Quick Impressions:
Leaving the theater, I said to my husband, “Coming of age movies about boys are always so baffling from a girl’s point of view. Why is it that every story about becoming a man and taking charge of your own life seems to involve going out in the woods and killing a bear? When I was a teenager, I felt frustrated by my lack of control over my life all the time. But I never once thought, ‘I know how to fix this. I’ll go off into the woods and kill a bear.’”
My husband immediately responded, “Yes, but a lot of girls seem to think, ‘I’ve got to have a child of my own, and then I’ll be a woman.’ That’s kind of the same thing.”
I was totally flattered. I thought, Wow! I’ve already had a child of my own. That’s the female equivalent of going out into the woods, stalking, killing, skinning, cooking, and eating a bear! Being a woman is clearly the better deal!
I won’t pretend my pregnancy was easy, but even allowing for the mysterious premature labor that resulted in an emergency C-section and three month NICU stay, I’d still rather have a baby than kill a bear! And since I’ve had the baby, I thought, I’m now like the female equivalent of a man! And I didn’t even have to kill or skin anything! How awesome is that?
I was really very pleased with the compliment until my husband explained that he wasn’t saying the two things are equal, just pointing out that the “killing a bear” business is driven by instinct that’s hard to explain rationally (much like the female drive to reproduce).
And I thought, Whatever, I’m still not killing a bear.
That said, if anything about this anecdote appealed to you, then you’ll probably enjoy The Kings of Summer, a quirky little indie film with an off-kilter sense of humor, a surprising dramatic side, and pretty impressive cinematography. (And don’t worry, nobody actually kills a bear, though there is a pretty graphic skinning of a rabbit that might bother some people.)
The Good:
When the jokes hit, the film is very funny. Some of the lines are really a scream. Often I’d think, “I’m going to remember that one,” “I’m going to write that down,” “I’m going to put that on a T-shirt.” Chris Galletta’s script isn’t perfect, but it does have all kinds of highly quotable one-liners (some because they’re just so random they’re hilarious, others because they’re surprisingly profound for something so seemingly silly). Because of the quotability of the lines and the larger-than-life characters who often seem more like caricatures, I’d be surprised if The Kings of Summer didn’t become a cult film.
Many of the scenes seem improvised. They may not be, of course. I know nothing about how the script was written. But some of the lines are so random, and much of the dialogue is awkward and strange (which is sometimes a good thing, sometimes not). When the characters have a good rapport, this works out better. Megan Mullally and Marc Evan Jackson (playing Patrick’s parents) pair perfectly and have wonderful scenes together. Nick Offerman (playing Joe’s dad) on the other hand, shares the screen with so many different characters, and some of them do not give him as much to work with as others. Offerman gives a great performance in the film, though, and when he’s working with people with whom he seems in sync (like the two cops played by Mary Lynn Rajskub and Thomas Middleditch) he’s brilliantly funny.
The first five minutes of the movie make it clear that the film’s not going for realism—it’s more like hyper-realism where everyone’s foibles, character flaws, and general level of wit is exaggerated for comic purposes. In some ways, the supporting characters behave as if they’re doing improv or sketch comedy. Life isn’t really this funny, but the movie is, and it establishes this immediately.
Just because the movie opts for zaniness over realism, though, doesn’t mean that its entire purpose is just to make us laugh. While the characters are exaggerated, the story still has an emotional core that feels extremely authentic to the desperate-to-come-of-age adolescent experience. (And that kind of explains why all the adults are so weird, too. That’s not what they’re really like. That’s what they seem like to their teenagers.)
In fact, for a while there just before the final act, Joe’s life becomes so real and pitiable that it’s almost depressing. Lots of the characters and situations are so exaggerated that they seem ridiculous at times. But what happens with Kelly, and particularly Joe’s response to these unwelcome developments, seems one-hundred percent real.
By the way, all of the young actors are very good. I remember Gabriel Basso (Patrick) from Super 8. I liked pretty much the entire young cast in that, and I think Basso is actually markedly better in this. Both Basso and Nick Robinson (Joe) do a great job of giving nuanced and authentic dramatic performances yet still displaying marvelous comic timing. I think Basso is a bit better with the comedy, Robinson with the drama.
Biaggio is one of those characters designed to elicit reactions. Clearly the idea is that fans will latch onto him and end up saying things like, “Wow! That was classic Biaggio.” Personally, I think he’s not as great a character as he could be. (I’ll say more about that later.) But Moises Arias does seem like a very talented young actor, and he certainly gives a memorable performance.
Erin Moriarty kept reminding me of a young Anna Paquin (not of the young Anna Paquin. She’s not actually that much like Paquin when she was young. It’s more that Moriarty reminded me of what Anna Paquin is like right now except Moriarty is younger). I liked the actress, though the character was not my favorite. (It’s not that Kelly is a bad character, but she’s seen almost entirely from Joe’s point of view, so she doesn’t get the development she needs not to seem like practically a stereotype.) Watching this movie, I got that idea that becoming a man is so difficult because nobody will tell you what you ought to be doing. (Certainly, nobody will tell me! I find the whole process deeply mysterious!) On the other hand, becoming a woman is difficult because everybody tells you what you ought to be doing. This movie does short-change Kelly a little bit. Joe does not understand her, really. The movie seems to understand her a little better, but it’s hard to tell. But Moriarty is giving a terrific performance that partially makes up for the lack of focus on her character. She seems very natural and genuine in the role and brings just the qualities that are needed to make Kelly seem like a real person.
Allison Brie also gives a really outstanding performance as Joe’s older sister Heather, possibly the one character in the movie (aside from Joe and Patrick) who seems like a normal person who could actually exist just the way she’s played in the film. (My husband said afterwards that this is probably because an admired older sibling would be the one adult that a teen might perceive as normal, and I agree.) Brie is really good in this. In fact, in my experience, she’s really good in everything.
The cinematography in the film is remarkable (probably the film’s strongest, most mature-seeming component—except for all the slow-mo moments that are a little too impressed with themselves. I want to say that while the writing has real potential, the cinematography is already there. And yet when I do say that I sound pretentious and ridiculous, don’t I? What I mean is, though the film is engaging, I think the writer and director will both give us even better material in the future. The cinematographer has already won me over).
I also liked the soundtrack, though the film does have the feel of, “I’m so cool, and I know it.” I guess if you’re so cool, you might as well know it. In theory, the very coolest people shouldn’t even be aware of their own coolness, but we all know that’s not the way things play out in real life. (That makes me think of Marge Simpson saying, “Well, how the hell do you be cool?” I guess when you don’t feel cool enough yourself to critique how coolly the cool manifest their coolness, you can always fall back Simpsons quotes and hope that everybody forgets about you entirely.)
Best Scene:
My favorite scene in the entire movie is probably the heart-to-heart Joe’s dad Frank (Nick Offerman) and Patrick’s dad (Marc Evan Jackson) share on the fishing boat. There are many scenes in this film that feel like improvisation (though they might just be scripted in a quirky way). The success of these exchanges really depends on the chemistry of the actors involved. Offerman and Jackson really pair well together. What they say is genuinely funny and also surprisingly touching (and significant). While the audience is smiling, each character is making some serious discoveries on his own, yet they remain amusingly out of step with one another. The scene is both funny (without being too weird) and crucial to character and plot development.
My husband and I also agreed that the scene when Joe doesn’t wake up seemed awfully authentic and quite well done.
Best Line That Wasn’t a Joke:
I really like Alison Brie’s character’s reply when her dad asks her, “I’m not a bastard, am I?” That father/daughter dynamic felt very real, and I love the way the character has learned to communicate with her father, giving him very helpful, necessary criticism in a way that will not damage their relationship. The father and son have a similar dynamic—i.e. lots of sarcastic/sardonic banter—but Joe seems to perceive it as directed and spiteful whereas Heather seems to realize it’s simply her father’s communication style. Not only does Heather help her Dad realize something here, but the moment also shows that Joe’s relationship with his father could improve.
Best Scene Visually:
I was so impressed with the cinematography in this film which is by far the strongest component of The Kings of Summer. Sometimes the jokes don’t hit. At times, the tonal shifts come so quickly that it’s hard to know how to react. And occasionally, the story seems a little thin. But the cinematography is wonderful. Not only do we get beautiful, stunning shots of nature, but we also get some unusual framing.
My favorite shot in the whole movie was very near the end when we’re shown two cars approaching a stop-light. We find ourselves looking up at the red stoplight from a point of view just behind the minivan’s red brake lights. It’s a very unusual shot. Not only did I love the way it looked, but it really got my attention.
In the scene, something significant happens between two characters in an entirely non-verbal exchange. Then at the end of the scene, one car turns, and the other goes forward through the now green light. (Overall, I think the changes in the boys’ behavior as how they see one another changes is very interesting.)
That’s why I liked the cinematography in this film so much. Not only does it look impressive, but it looks impressive for a reason. The visuals are used to convey meaning (sometimes more than the dialogue, I think). I definitely came away with the idea that human society is so ridiculous and (when viewed from the outside in) bizarre, whereas nature is steady and real, and there are natural forces at work within us that can’t be stopped by what anybody else says or does.
Some of the slow-mo, close-up nature scenes seem a little bit too self-aware, but they still look cool.
Funniest Scene:
My husband mentioned in the car how much he enjoyed the scene with the cops and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” I agree that Nick Offerman and the two cops work really well together.
I personally really loved the moment when Patrick’s parents were determined to give him vegetable soup. Patrick’s parents are really unreal, but exaggerated/hyper-hilarity is what Megan Mullally does best. (I always liked her the best on Will and Grace except when they tried to move her to the center as the lead of an episode. Some characters only really work when they’re in the periphery.)
The boys also have some great comedic moments, but while the lines seemed very quotable at the time, I’m having trouble remembering them now.
Best Action Sequence:
The opening scene (repeated later) of the boys dancing/drumming in the forest will definitely become iconic if the movie catches on. That scene is the essence of The Kings of Summer, and I knew the moment that I saw it that the movie would be worth watching. It’s worth watching just for that scene, to be honest.
And the moment when the snake first appears is absolutely chilling.
The Negatives:
When the jokes don’t land, they’re sometimes painful and baffling. Sometimes, entire scenes drag on and on never really find the elusive hilarity they’re seeking. After a while, this can get painful. Just one example—for me, the bit with the delivery guy and the large wontons never really found its footing. I will grant that Nick Offerman is still doing some very fine acting in this scene. It’s working dramatically. We’re getting that his character is very upset and more disturbed about his whole relationship with his son than he wants to let on. But the scene also seems to want to be funny, and while occasionally it is, it never really gets to the comedic heights that it’s clearly aiming for.
One point in the movie’s favor, though, is that different jokes seem to work for different audience members. Everybody laughs at some things. And while the inverse is not true, it is true that on at least some of the occasions when I wasn’t amused, other people audibly were (and vice versa).
I also think that the character of Biaggio is mishandled. There are plenty of people who seem awfully weird in real life (especially when you don’t get to know them. Sometimes I suspect that I am one of them). And like everybody else in the movie, Biaggio isn’t playing a real guy. He’s playing Joe’s perception of this weird kid Biaggio. But sometimes I think they go too far with him, and that makes him less funny instead of funnier. A Biaggio slightly more grounded in reality could be a lot funnier. And some of his jokes are just so strange. As just one example—the whole gay/cystic fibrosis thing is so bizarre that it could be funny because it’s just like, “What?!” But then the thing is, Biaggio doesn’t seem to be joking at all, and Joe also seems to take what he is saying very seriously. It’s at moments like these that the tone of the movie is hard to figure out. I suppose that might be because everything is being filtered through Joe’s point of view, and Joe is extremely confused at that moment. (Life isn’t working out as he expected, and he’s struggling to form an identity that can make sense of that.)
But what really bothers me about Biaggio is that he feels like a gimmick. And that really only bothers me because at moments the gimmick seems to work, but the movie can’t seem to make that last. The actor is so talented and the idea behind the character is so solid that he could become iconic. And maybe he will. But I don’t know. Maybe if I were a fifteen-year-old boy I’d like him better. I’d rather hang out with him than kill a bear. I’ll give him
that much.
The movie also occasionally has moments of trying to draw humor from pointing out that the characters are (absurdly) racist (and yet unaware of it) or showing their discomfort at being thought racist. Society is so PC and considerate now, and racism, particularly perceived racism, makes us all so tense that, of course, comedy trying to catch the audience off balance is going to go there. Unfortunately, most of these moments are less funny than they could have been. So we’re left with the awkwardness and the tension, but we don’t get the comedic payoff that should reward us for enduring the tension.
Also the tonal shifts are hard to predict and sometimes hard to adjust to quickly enough. The opening act of the movie features off-the-wall humor and too-quirky-to-be-real characters. So you think, Ah, I see. This is all very funny. (What is it that Patrick’s parents say? “We’re in pretend world?” “We must be in pretend world?” Something like that.) But then suddenly there’s this abrupt shift into a situation that’s not funny at all, and in fact, increasingly sad. Now granted, this film is mostly from Joe’s perspective, and teenagers are notorious for their mood swings. But the thing is, we’re not always with Joe. Sometimes we appear to be distinctly outside Joe, and it’s difficult to know what to do when such unpredictable moments happen. So I think the film definitely has a slight problem with tone and tonal transitions.
I also wish we didn’t have to watch the skinning of the rabbit. I won’t say that it shouldn’t be in there because I think it’s a visual metaphor for Joe’s interior state and deliberate transition. I don’t think the scene is bad for the film. I just don’t like watching animals being skinned. In fact, I was planning to complain about the film’s undeserved R-rating until I thought about how unexpectedly graphic this scene is. Now it’s not like watching The Human Centipede or even a war documentary with real battle footage. But it’s still a bit jarring given the whimsical tone of earlier scenes. (I’m not saying that it’s a misstep by the film because I do think the movie’s tonal shifts mirror the mood swings/personality changes/discoveries of the emerging young man, but it’s just hard to watch. That’s all.)
And—this is a minor thing—determining when the movie took place was pretty difficult for me. I’m pretty sure in an early scene Patrick is playing the SNES version of Street Fighter II. We still have that game on virtual console, and I still play it occasionally, but I’m…you know…old. My stepson is much more likely to play games designed for the PS3 or Wii. (We don’t have an X-Box.) At that moment, I started to think, Wait is this happening in the past? (I also lived near a Boston Market in high school and never see those around anymore, but apparently there just aren’t any close to my house.) But then his parents mention Hancock (sort of) as if it’s some old movie they’ve stumbled on, so I began to assume that it’s the present (though they are still using flip phones). My husband suggested that it could take place in any time as it’s a timeless kind of story, and I suppose that works for me.
Overall:
The Kings of Summer is definitely worth a look, though I can’t guarantee you’ll like what you see. The movie is in turns so random and so sweet that it seems impossible to hate it, but I think that while some people will love it (actually, it seems made to generate a cult following), others may just as easily feel puzzled or only vaguely pleased.
My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed the film, though we can easily see why others might not. The cast is definitely very talented. Of the adults, Nick Offerman and Alison Brie give very strong and likable performances, and Megan Mullally, Marc Evan Jackson, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Thomas Middleditch are all extremely funny. Young protagonists Nick Robinson and Gabriel Basso are both fantastic, Erin Moriarty is better than her role, and Moises Arias does a good job playing a character created to get attention.
If you’re thinking, I’m looking for a movie that makes all adults seem hilariously insane, shows lots of slow-motion close-ups of flora and fauna set to slightly-too-cool music, suddenly distresses me to the point of near tears, teaches me how to skin a rabbit properly, and includes a wacky character named Biaggio who always says and does whatever least makes sense, then your typical night at the movies must have been such a soul-crushing disappointment—until now. You’d better run to see this movie right away (if it’s even playing at a theater near you, and good luck with that)!