The Kings of Summer (2013) Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts Starring: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Several Other People You Probably Recognize Genres: Comedy, Drama, Coming-of-Age IMDb Synopsis: "Three teenage friends, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land." |
I’m not entirely sure where to start with this movie so let’s start with Moises Arias. He plays Biaggio, the relentlessly weird kid that just kinda hangs around the elder Joe and Patrick as they venture out into the woods. In a movie packed to the rafters with comedic “that guys” - Nick Offerman has a starring role in this film, but more on him later - Arias consistently steals the show by just saying the weirdest possible shit in the most deadpan delivery imaginable. We all knew a guy like this in high school. Hell, I’m willing to wager some of us were this guy in high school. The one criticism I’ll level here is that sometimes Biaggio slips into what I will fondly refer to as “Dwight Schrute Syndrome,” which is where a character just spouts weird shit for no other purpose than to say some weird shit and get a quick laugh. (Nothing against Dwight Schrute; I’ve just been rewatching a lot of The Office lately.) Still though, Biaggio rules.
This movie is a great example of a fairly straightforward story told uniquely enough to make it appealing. Some of the editing choices in this film really stand out, like the long, lingering shots of nature or the repeated use of slow-motion montages. I particularly liked two moments of parallel editing, one being the boyfriend’s performance of “The Band Played On” to convey Joe’s infatuation with Kelly, and the other being between Joe and his dad living sad bachelor lives that ends with the implied eating of a mouse. Oh, and for those playing along at home, “parallel editing” is a fancy term I learned in film class for cutting between two otherwise unrelated events in a way that gives them a combined meaning. So yeah, I’m kinda a film scholar.
But I really loved the direction the writers took the love triangle between Joe, Patrick and Kelly. Maybe the character we expect to get the girl won’t, because that’s not always how it works in real life. I love how Patrick explains this to Joe: “We weren’t trying to hurt you; it was never about you.” And I thought the mutual understanding that these three characters come to by the time the credits roll was really cool; it felt incredibly sincere and true-to-life.
EFR-Certified Film Grade: B+
EXTRA CREDIT: The brief cameos by Hannibal Burress and Kumail Nanjiani. Oh, and the most true-to-life depiction of your typical Monopoly game that I’ve ever seen.
LATE WORK: That I couldn’t find a way to naturally include the joke “Kongs of Summer” in the main portion of the review and must now tack it on here.
See you soon, folks. Stay safe out there.
The Kings of Summer Poster:
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Biaggio image:
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Anton Ego image: nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/antonegocritic.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=780
Kings of Summer image:
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Goodbye meme:
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