K-SCORE: 59
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Writer: Chris Galletta
Starring: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Erin Moriarty, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Alison Brie
Spoiler Level: Moderate
“needlessly split narrative”
In The Kings of Summer, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts does not know what kinds of film he wants to make. That’s not to suggest that he blends styles or crosses genres. He’s just confused. The film at times embraces the concept of a whimsical run-away childhood fantasy with ridiculous dream sequences. Other times it focuses on the grisly become-one-with-nature concept with scenes of characters skinning animals and struggling with the woods as a habitat. Still other times it just has the children characters embracing a spirit of freedom, creating a slipshod house in the woods and living away from their parents, cutting corners whenever and wherever possible such that they enjoy their summer and live by no one’s rules. When the film focuses on this final concept, it’s at its strongest, sillily entertaining, but the general lack of specific direction makes it drag.
Because of the genre and the opening fifteen seconds of needlessly split narrative nonsense, I was able to predict almost the entire thing. I knew they’d have a checklist of scenes they had to hit: a triumph of escaping the parents montage, the obligatory high school party scene, the bringing the girls into the woods scene, the best friend fight, the best friend reconciliation, the dad fight, the dad reconciliation, and the “I learned something today,” finale. It’s not that the base structure is bad entirely, but those checkpoints scenes are the worst ones in The Kings of Summer. The film has other things to offer, other humorous moments to enjoy, other anecdotes and moments of insight into the minds of young, strange people. I would have happily given up screen time on all that high school garbage that felt inevitable for more trials of Patrick and Joe building the house or for more crazy things Biaggio did.
Easily the biggest mishandled moment in the film involves the girl Joe has a crush on. There is such a tiny amount of dialogue between this character and any of the boys that it seems ludicrous to think of Patrick as having “stolen” her away from Joe and for Joe to lash out as he does, yet of course this serves as the driving force behind the climax. To make matters worse, Joe’s infatuation is purely physical and in his anger he calls her a bitch and says she ruins everything and then never makes amends or even apologizes, which devalues every bit of growth, every stride he makes as a character.
For all that, it’s not terrible. Biaggio is a good character, funny and interesting, and Patrick and Joe are lovable if for no other reason than they accept him as he is. The beginning is frequently funny and the end does drum up meaningful emotions regarding freedom and adolescence. I just see things open with split narratives and smack my palm to my forehead, saying, “Why!? Why do this again?!” then look for everything contained within that I can dislike. And then I catalogue those dislikes and put them on the internet. Because I’m crazy.