The Kings of Summer (2013)
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Three restless teenagers run away to the woods for the summer, determined to escape their parents and live by their own rules. In a hidden clearing, they build a makeshift house and attempt to create an independent life, testing their friendship, freedom, and the challenges of living off the land.
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25 films that influenced The Kings of Summer
What critics say influenced The Kings of Summer
The slight but captivating indie-comedy The Kings of Summer has the ragtag look and feel of a movie made in some teenager’s basement: lots of slow motion; a blaring, catchy soundtrack that opens with a joyous rendition of Thin Lizzy’s “Cowboy Song;” and themes inspired by classic films about youthful friendship like Stand By Me and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
"The Kings of Summer" has been compared in certain circles to 1986's quintessential, possibly ultimate, coming-of-age film "Stand by Me."
The film is now called “The Kings of Summer” and while it may recall Rob Reiner’s fondly remembered “Stand By Me,” it’s really quite different from that film.
Obvious Stand By Me references aside, The Kings of Summer comes across as little more than a TV sitcom with enough swear words included to earn it an "R" rating.
And while it openly evokes the spirit of pictures like “Stand By Me” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” it scores originality points in the shading of its characters and its utter fearlessness in going for the big laughs.
More Thoreau’s “Walden” than Golding’s “Lord of the Flies,” “The Kings of Summer” could have gotten away with using the tagline for Rob Reiner’s “Stand by Me,” which is: “For some, it’s the last real taste of innocence, and the first real taste of life.
The slight but captivating indie-comedy The Kings of Summer has the ragtag look and feel of a movie made in some teenager’s basement: lots of slow motion; a blaring, catchy soundtrack that opens with a joyous rendition of Thin Lizzy’s “Cowboy Song;” and themes inspired by classic films about youthful friendship like Stand By Me and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
It's similar in the way you'd suspend your disbelief while watching an old-school National Lampoon comedy (like Vacation or Caddyshack), or John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off, all of which knocked around in my brain during Toy's House.
He has the infectious grin of a young Matthew Broderick— the similarities between them might be distracting if it weren’t such a pleasure to be reminded of what it was like to discover that earlier cheeky grin back in the WarGames, Project X and Ferris Bueller era.
He has the infectious grin of a young Matthew Broderick— the similarities between them might be distracting if it weren’t such a pleasure to be reminded of what it was like to discover that earlier cheeky grin back in the WarGames, Project X and Ferris Bueller era.
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Set in the contemporary Cleveland suburbs, The Kings of Summer vaguely recalls the more nostalgic, more self-conscious Moonrise Kingdom .
And while it openly evokes the spirit of pictures like “Stand By Me” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” it scores originality points in the shading of its characters and its utter fearlessness in going for the big laughs.
Like Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom,” but with greater emotional warmth and less stylistic affectation, it offers a tale of youngsters leaving home that’s touched by magic and good spirits.
There’s an argument to be made that a lackadaisical teen comedy like “The Kings of Summer” is a modest rebuke to the over-amped shenanigans of button-pushing peers like “Project X” and “21 & Over.” (And to be fair, it’s also probably a more “realistic” portrait of young love than Anderson’s finely tuned eccentricity in “Moonrise Kingdom” or “Rushmore.”)
Writer Chris Galletta and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts ('Funny or Die Presents') make an auspicious feature debut with this charmer that plays like "The Lord of the Flies" meets "Moonrise Kingdom" as sponsored by Boston Market (a running gag in the film).
In his first produced screenplay, Chris Galletta walks the path previously trod by "Stand By Me," "Moonrise Kingdom," and "Lord of the Flies," but at a pace all his own.
The late Hughes had a nice run of scripts in the `80s, including "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
The nature imagery also emulates, with no apparent irony, such significantly more mystical films as Terrence Malick's The New World and Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock .
The late Hughes had a nice run of scripts in the `80s, including "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
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The film also stars Alison Brie (TV's 'Community,' 'Mad Men') as Joe's out-of-the-house sister and Eugene Cordero ("Furry Vengeance") as her oddball boyfriend.
There’s an argument to be made that a lackadaisical teen comedy like “The Kings of Summer” is a modest rebuke to the over-amped shenanigans of button-pushing peers like “Project X” and “21 & Over.” (And to be fair, it’s also probably a more “realistic” portrait of young love than Anderson’s finely tuned eccentricity in “Moonrise Kingdom” or “Rushmore.”)