The Kings of Summer

The Kings of Summer was the latest coming of age comedy to hit Sundance, where it received rave reviews.  I got someone at work to cover my shift while I went to an advanced screening movie, so I had relatively high expectations and Kings Of Summer did not disappoint.   

Kings of Summer is the story of three friends Joe, Patrick and Biaggio in search of freedom from their parents, build a house in the middle of the woods.  Joe lives with his divorced father Frank who every time Joe gets in a fight with he ends up calling the police unnecessarily to the house.  Patrick is trying to escape his overbearing parents, while Biaggio just seems to come along for the fun of it.

I’m a sucker for coming of age stories, but the pleasant surprise of this movie was the how well the comedy worked.  The perfect combination of writing and actor delivery had me laughing the entire movie.  Biaggio is one of the most interesting and effective comedic characters ever developed.  Part of this is due to the amazing performance Moises Arias who makes Biaggio’s character just creepy enough.  Even with a cast that includes Nick Offerman from Parks & Rec, Moises Arias steals the comedic thunder with a performance that will make you forget about his days as Rico on Hannah Montana.  Arias is one of the few Disney stars that has been able to make the post-Disney transition to the big screen, unlike Ashley Tisdale or Sara Paxton who can only seem to find roles in terrible parody movies.

The movie balances it’s comedy perfectly throughout, making some of the more serious scenes in the movie much more heart wrenching.   Kings of Summer taps into the very primal urge for freedom, much like the way Into the Wild did.  After all everyone has had times were the dreamed of running away from home when they were a kid.  A coming of age story is something that has been done many times before, but Kings of Summer is able to put a refreshing twist on it, mostly thanks to it incredible cast.  This coupled with impressive cinematography for an indie comedy makes Kings of Summer a complete package.  It’s worth mentioning that this was Jordan Vogt-Roberts (a fellow Michigan native) directorial debut, a strong first feature has me looking forward to what the future will bring for the young director.

The movie however does feel condensed through it’s over use of montage sequences, which deprives us from being even further embedded in the experience of the movie.  This movie would have definitely benefited from being 10-15 minutes longer by replacing the montage sequences with some more scenes of the daily life in the woods for these three friends.  However this is merely a small chink in the armor of what is an outstanding movie.   The Kings of Summer is certainly worth going to see and may be the best movie this summer that no one is talking about.

Rating: 88/100