You’ll be hard pressed to find a film this year—maybe ever—that captures both the burning desire and the abject terror at the prospect of growing up as “The Kings of Summer.” Certainly a generic title, it’s better than “Toy’s House,” the name on the tag the movie wore to the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Don’t be swayed by the moniker, however, this is a fantastic, bittersweet coming of age movie that manages to be wildly funny, deathly serious, and, most of all, engaging, all at the same time. The characters teeter on the cusp, at that point where childhood gives way to adulthood, and are unsure of how to proceed. A trio of high school friends—Joe Toy (Nick Robinson), Patrick Keenan (Gabriel Basso), and Biaggio (Moises Arias)—sick of the oppression of their parents, desperate to breathe free air and be on their own,...
- 6/7/2013
- by Brent McKnight
- Beyond Hollywood
We all remember those moments from our childhood when we wished we could run away from home. We didn't know what we would do, or how we would survive. We just knew we were smarter than our parents, and we had to get out. That thought is what drives the main characters in The Kings of Summer. The indie darling that delighted fans and critics at Sundance (when it was called Toy's House) opens in Austin theaters on Friday, and it offers lessons and laughs that could benefit and amuse both teenagers and parents.
Joe Toy (Nick Robinson) and Patrick Keenan (Gabriel Basso) are your average everyday high-school freshman. They have chores, are interested in girls and are extremely annoyed at their parents pretty much all the time. Joe's conflict stems from living with his father (the great Nick Offerman) in the wake of Joe's mother's untimely death. Occasionally, his...
Joe Toy (Nick Robinson) and Patrick Keenan (Gabriel Basso) are your average everyday high-school freshman. They have chores, are interested in girls and are extremely annoyed at their parents pretty much all the time. Joe's conflict stems from living with his father (the great Nick Offerman) in the wake of Joe's mother's untimely death. Occasionally, his...
- 6/6/2013
- by J.C. De Leon
- Slackerwood
After the premiere screening at Sundance of his wonderful debut feature “Kings Of Summer,” director Jordan Vogt-Roberts – responsible for the short “Successful Alcoholics” and a veteran of “Funny Or Die Presents…” – told the audience his influences for his first feature included early Amblin films like “The Goonies” with “elements of [Terrence] Malick,” and most surprisingly, “Bad Boys II.” The filmmaker had to clarify that he was not, in fact, joking about Michael Bay’s destruction opus, and his Twitter bio proves it (“Really into Michael Bay”). And so, from these wonderfully disparate influences we have “Kings Of Summer,” a crockpot of comedy and coming-of-age film without a trace of irony. The film opens with three boys in the woods, two of them rhythmically drumming on a giant pipe while the third dances like a maniac on top of it. Cut to: one month earlier and we’re introduced to two of these boys,...
- 5/30/2013
- by Cory Everett
- The Playlist
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