The Kings of Summer is a coming of age dramedy centered around Joe, a teenage boy who just finished his freshman year and is sick of dealing with his father. He convinces his best friend, Patrick, to live in the woods and a random kid, Biaggio, accompanies them. Will they thrive away from civilization or will their problems follow them?
I think there is a parallel universe where The Kings of Summer is my favorite movie, but it is not this one. I actually decided to watch it twice to see if I was too harsh during my initial viewing less than a year ago, but I was not, and it just helped me articulate my feelings more. I love the cast. Nick Offerman plays Joe’s dad, and I know that his character is supposed to be awful, but I can never bring myself to hate any character that Offerman plays. He is a master. His real life wife and the mistress of comedy, Megan Mullally, my all time fave for playing Karen in Will & Grace, plays Patrick’s mother, and pairs nicely with Marc Evan Jackson, as her on screen husband whom I think of as the guy in Kong: Skull Island who barely gets a line. They are supposed to be annoying because they are overprotective parents, but I found them as an outsider adorable and goals. Mary Lynn Rajskub plays a cop and has a brilliant, understated delivery, especially when paired with Thomas Middleditch, who deserves an award for playing the straight man and not breaking character in the face of ridiculousness. Tony Hale, Hannibal Buress and Kumail Nanjiani make brief but memorable appearances that steal the scene from the main players. I do not know him, but Eugene Cordero manages to play the oblivious, sweet and sincere boyfriend of Joe’s sister, who is played solidly by Community’s Alison Brie.
The visual style of The Kings of Summer is somewhat off kilter with the human beings’ actions on the screen, but completely in rhythm in its entirety in a lovely, harmonic, idyllic way. It is Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ debut feature film, and it probably landed in my queue because I was so impressed with Kong: Skull Island. Unfortunately he has not made a feature length film since, and he definitely has talent. There is something emotionally resonant and textured in his sense of color and framing that communicates a mournful sense of longing and slipping away even while existing in the present. Even when the movie loses momentum as it reaches the denouement and feels as if it abruptly got depressing near the end, his work keeps you in your seat instead of pressing stop and moving on. Vogt-Roberts makes silence work when the writing fails.
Even though I knew what The Kings of Summer was about, and the teen cast did a great job (I usually complain about kids’ acting, but not applicable in this case), I was more invested in the adults. Moises Arias as Biaggio manages to nail an offball character seamlessly and not feel like a gimmick. Gabriel Basso nails the pairing of awkward of a kid on the verge of emerging into a young man who does not realize how awesome he is going to be as an adult. Nick Robinson as the protagonist does his best to add layers to a character that is objectively awful. He is probably the best known young actor from starring as the titular character in Love, Simon and the love interest in Everything, Everything.
The Kings of Summer is funny, especially in the hands of this deft and experienced cast. The teen actors elevate their characters above the basics offered in the dialogue by providing a sensitivity and maturity that is actually absent on the page. Unfortunately the film occasionally suffers from hipster racism, misogyny and homophobia. It is not the kind of racism that would actually be used in real life to offend anyone, but an invented or less bandied around racism used to spice up the proceedings for the jokes. If anyone criticizes the line, I can see it excused as, “No one would say that. It is funny,” but exactly no one would say that so why throw it in: fearmongering Chinaman, Irish are the blacks of Europe (while Patrick’s mom derides the cops) and a black first name paired with a state. It reminds me of when Quentin Tarantino is willfully transgressive, but this story lacks the courage to just be taboo so skirts around it. It wants to go there, but lacks the courage. Maybe there is a world where it is funny because of its phonology, and this movie lives and dies by the delivery of lines, but it also felt cheap and dissonant. In contrast, the wonton moment is hilarious to me and does the same work.
I feel as if The Kings of Summer could have worked better if it had not completely obliterated its melancholy in the middle because once it reemerges, it threatens to erase everything that came before. The pure joy and ecstasy of the middle act then complete plunge into sorrow needed a smoother transition. The choice seems deliberate, but is not well balanced with the prior two acts although I can see how objectively the filmmakers wanted to distill the protagonist’s journey to his essence without the maddening crowd. I am not sure why it does not quite work, but if I had to guess, it may be because I hate the protagonist as a character and only having him on screen makes you and him realize how dreadful he is. Although I understand that I am supposed to be sympathetic to him for a multitude of reasons. Absent those reasons, he sounds like he was always a jerk, but he just retroactively got a cover story to excuse them. Yes, by the end of the movie, he matures, and we are supposed to be impressed by his journey and transformation. Sure. OK. He could also fall back into negative patterns and become an Incel. I feel as if he is the classic nice guy that I am expected to root for, but I am too old to be fooled by that act at this late stage in life. Fool me once. He is an entitled little shit who only values the people in his life and grows when he realizes that he is not as great as he thought that he was and has a near death experience. It could wear off.
The Kings of Summer is available to stream on Amazon Prime for free if you are a member. It benefits from repeat viewing, and even as someone who is not interested in stories about adolescent boys, it is still a fairly entertaining movie. I think that it could have been brilliant with a few more revisions in the script, but it deserves points for not going over well-trod, tropey material about loss and avoiding any sentimentality even in one flashback of (thank God) a scene that we never saw though it occurred during the movie. It is not as good as it could have been, but it definitely deserves points for a distinctive vision.