The King of Staten Island (2020)
Directed by Judd Apatow
Scott has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He's now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach. As his ambitious younger sister heads off to college, Scott is still living with his exhausted ER nurse mother and spends his days smoking weed, hanging with the guys — Oscar, Igor and Richie — and secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey. But when his mother starts dating a loudmouth firefighter named Ray, it sets off a chain of events that will force Scott to grapple with his grief and take his first tentative steps toward moving forward in life.
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It’s lovely that Kelsey gets the requisite ferry scene, briefly linking “The King of Staten Island” to a cinematic tradition that includes Martin Scorsese’s “Who’s That Knocking at My Door” and Mike Nichols’ “Working Girl.”
Just as Freak and Geeks was also a betrayal of American working-class roots, these bridge-and-tunnel adult tough guys and blunt, gum-smacking women (“we’re the only place New Jersey looks down on”) recall the outrageous white stereotypes of big-haired Staten Island skanks in Mike Nichols’s phony Working Girl .
He lives with his mother Margie (Marisa Tomei) and refuses to commit to the local girl he’s sleeping with (Bel Powley, channeling “Working Girl”-style Staten Island swagger).
As a producer and writer he’s been involved in favorites such as “Freaks and Geeks,” “Anchorman,” “Superbad,” “Step Brothers,” “Girls,” and “The Big Sick.”
Over and over during the press tour for The Big Sick in 2017, I remember screenwriters Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon talking about how their producer Judd Apatow had kept hectoring them to make their script more real, more personal, to go with honesty over punchlines whenever in doubt.
Films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin or even recent comedies like The Big Sick tend to front load their first hours with their biggest laughs, so it’s initially a solid change of pace for the filmmakers to trust the audience’s patience and take a character-driven approach.
The concept may sound a little self-indulgent on its face, and those viewers who may question their overall interest in Davidson’s life story may scoff, but The King of Staten Island plays — if not quite as successfully — in the same confessional comedic territory as The Big Sick (another Apatow production!
I know this is supposed to be the Pete Davidson semi-autobiographical flick or whatever, in the same vein as Trainwreck or The Big Sick , but Trainwreck was Amy’s screenplay and The Big Sick was Kumail and Emily’s script.
Making vivid use of Staten Island locations, DP Robert Elswit ( There Will Be Blood ), a first-time Apatow collaborator, shoots in a loose, fluid style, imbuing the frames with a scruffy, at times luminously nostalgic New York romanticism.
He shot Magnolia and There Will Be Blood , among dozens of other credits – and the writing is mostly warm and witty.
Moreover, the director enlists Robert Elswit ( There Will Be Blood ; Michael Clayton ; Good Night, and Good Luck ) as cinematographer.
Cinematographer Robert Elswit won an Oscar for There Will Be Blood , a very difficult shoot with gorgeous footage.
It speaks volumes that he’s hired the great cinematographer Robert Elswit here — Elswit, who has lensed most of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, including There Will Be Blood and Inherent Vice , as well as Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler , brings a lovely warmth to this one, making it feel more tangible, less shiny and clean than Apatow’s usual films.
It was shot by Robert Elswit, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of "Boogie Nights," "There Will Be Blood" and "Nightcrawler."
The Universal release, co-written by its star, follows the "8 Mile" template of unvarnished self-examination, only played for laughs as well as pathos.
My colleague Juilan Lytle wrote that The King of Staten Island is Pete Davidson’s 8 Mile.
Imagine 8 Mile if B. Rabbit’s secret dream was to franchise a TGI Fridays and you have some idea of the cognitive dissonance.
Una película cuasi autobiográfica como esta no necesita incluir tal detalle - no hay una foto sonriente de Eminem y su madre al final de 8 Mile - pero la elección tiene peso aquí.
The King of Staten Island is constantly battling with whether it wants to be a light comedic romp about arrested development, a la every Adam Sandler film not called Punch Drunk Love or Uncut Gems, or a gritty autobiographical story of one troubled manboy’s rise above his demons a la 8 Mile .
It's the "SNL" star's story the same way "8 Mile" was Eminem's story; Em played a version of himself who was not really himself but okay, it was himself.
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The themes of male infantilization and boys without fathers that were deep and powerful in John Singleton’s urban-ghetto drama Baby Boy become a train wreck when hit by Apatow’s comedy shtick and brazen insensitivity.
It speaks volumes that he’s hired the great cinematographer Robert Elswit here — Elswit, who has lensed most of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, including There Will Be Blood and Inherent Vice , as well as Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler , brings a lovely warmth to this one, making it feel more tangible, less shiny and clean than Apatow’s usual films.
It was shot by Robert Elswit, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of "Boogie Nights," "There Will Be Blood" and "Nightcrawler."
This down to the great work of cinematographer Robert Elswit, who was behind There Will Be Blood and Nightcrawler .
The King of Staten Island is no mere stoner comedy, though, nor are the battles between Scott and Ray echoes of Meet the Parents or Anger Management.
Jay Roach, of the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents franchises, now directs political dramas, as does Adam McKay, who moved from Will Ferrell silliness to The Big Short and Vice.
It is also, at its core, the story of most of Apatow’s previous directorial efforts – “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” “Funny People ,” and “Trainwreck” are also basically the same narrative, and it’s also, with some minor alterations, the through-line of several projects he’s produced, including “Girls,” “Bridesmaids,” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
So do the sets (David Schlesinger, Knives Out ), the worn clothes that look like they were bought at Target (costume designer Sara Mae Burton, Blockers ), the dull colors (art director Nick Francone, TV’s Bull ) and the quirkyblend of background music (Michael Andrews, Bridesmaids ).
While sexism has always been the trickiest charge to pin on the filmmaker – one who’s enjoyed true collaborations with the likes of Schumer, Lena Dunham (Apatow wrote 10 episodes of HBO’s Girls), and Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo (Bridesmaids) – it’s not imagined, either.
Somehow, three editors for The King of Staten Island , three-time Oscar nominee Jay Cassidy (twice for David O. Russell works), William Kerr ( Bridesmaids ), and Brian Scott Olds ( Central Intelligence ) couldn’t trim paper with a welding torch.
Feig has carved out a niche with such wildly successful comedies as Bridesmaids and The Heat, which provide female superstars like Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig roles as meaty and raunchy as their male counterparts– in other words, “guy movies” for women.
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This Four Horsemen of Lazy-ocalypse wobble in the same cinematic circles as New Jerseyans Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) of “Clerks” (1994) fame, but the Empire State boys carry even less conviction and pride than their out-of-state brothers from other mothers.
In last month’s Empire , Judd Apatow said that he increasingly wants to hit the tone of the films that shaped him — most notably the work of Hal Ashby ( Being There , Harold And Maude ) and James L. Brooks ( Terms Of Endearment , Broadcast News ).