Review of King Jack (2015) by Mauricio G — 13 Jul 2016

Ok it's a blue movie, my worst prejudices have been tapped. It's an uphill battle from here.

This film has given me a chance to take a solid reflection of myself from teenage onward. I feel a wave of embarassment, feet kicked up on my parents furniture wearing red pajamas at 2am, 30 years old, cursing at Netflix when it glithces. Tom, the older brother, startles this part of me when being dropped off for work by his mom, having to ask for money. Jack says he was popular, people did what he did - I was popular for being a whacko and did inspire some unique movements... look at us now! On the flipside, there's Jack having a smoke and drinking beer while hanging with the girls and his cousin in Harriet's bedroom. She's adorable, but he brushes her off in hopes to have the 'better' one, or at least the more popular, Robyn. It's a tantilizing scene where me, the older person, is now screaming at Jack through the TV, wanting to strangle him to action, knowing all the girls I rejected so I could have better. In hindsight, they are all almost as lovely as anyone else, but in the present I know the feeling. Harriet is the All-American girl; we know from a distance we'd jump through the screen to be with her, but we should also know that put in Jack's shoes, we may very well act the same.

The film offers a unique chance for the viewer to reflect on the years between Jack and Tom, who are unmistakenly distantly aged brothers. That bedroom scene grabbed me most because it presented acts, usually deemed guilty, with the utmost innocence; I only wish I could go back and loosen up a little, pull the stick out of my ass, drink and smoke and have some fun - I might've gotten laid. Or at least engaged more with people, which is more important. Many can relate to the defensive feeling one gets when a girl recognizes a boys virginity, stripping him of any masculinity he hopes to feel. This has already happened to him, his small pecker the source of laughs amongst girls, his flex pose having done nothing for Robyn in his sext. It hurts one's ego, and we're given a chance to empathize with those of our peers who were on that end of the stick. I envy these kids, I wish I were in that room at that age. I would've done things differently, and I don't doubt this film intends to evoke alot of that amongst it's audience.

Jack has a tender monologue about fifty minutes in as he tries apologizing to Ben for the humiliation he allowed bully Shane to inflict. But it becomes about him and why he is who he is, a "Scab" to peers, including Tom, who is revealed to be something of a real jerk after just being the hero who saved Ben from Shane's paintball torture.

As for the violence and fighting, is there such a thing as police in this town? I'm not even sure where this town is, but I imagine it's lacking specificity is intentional. It's rural, feels like outskirt Detroit, lawless, trashtown USA. A cop shows up at the end, it's obviously intentional that the the story chose to close itself off from law and isolate these kids to their culture. That's real, I get that, I even wrote a similar structure in a story called High School Gangs - no police involvement until it's too late. Another complaint I had in the way of violence was Shane - what's his reason for being so hateful towards Jack? But then I remember that some kids were like that, and haven't even changed much. They didn't need any justification for acting on their deepest prejudices, or to just prove a point, dominance, territoriality, whatever it is.

My biggest problem is that the film isn't about anything terribly interesting. We've seen the exercises before, small character pieces that try to act as feel good dramas. It's kind of boring, even if there are aspects of the characters we share. There are loose ends, like Tom's gambling problem. Hey I don't mind loose ends, but this is outright underdeveloped, so much that it never should've been established. Did Thompson forget he started that? There just aren't enough layers, or anything in the story to suggest this should be a film. Why are there filmmakers drawn to these lowball ideas? It confounds me that anyone is motivated to get up and make this. It doesn't add up to much besides a sweet little moment when Harriet brings Jack a crown, thanks to information spilled by Ben, who was only pretending to sleep through Jack's "King" monologue. The climactic moment before crowning was that Jack could take an ass-whooping, and Shane stood wide-eyed and amazed that Jack could keep standing - the Passion of Jack. I didn't buy it, was laughable. One of Shane's boys insisted they hurry up and get out of there. Again, were police showing up? I didn't hear any sirens, and the way the scene kept dragging, there was plenty of time for them to get there. This all seemed contrived. Robyn's bedroom was a suspenseful setup, the use of red lights and a POV from the closet built the tension as we were all teased. Now enters the horror element of teen sexuality - we have contrast from the innocence of before. This is the peak of the film's morality, and it's clever in how it plays off of the sexuality with Harriet, as well as reintroducing Shane. Too bad, you had a girl downstairs in Harriet who loved you and whose heart you decided to break - bad karma buddy.

This is a film played by young actors, not easy to come by effectively. They've done a nice job here. Charlie Plummer as Jack steals the show, but Yainis Ynoa's Harriet steals our hearts. However, Danny Flahrety as Shane is the charisma which keeps our eyes peeled. Though I never was convinced there was a real driving force, he was so maniacal, unpredictable, and funny that I could never look away. There were times I wondered if everyone else needed to bump it up a bit though (Shane excluded). When Robyn and Jack are drinking, Jack seems hesitant to drink any further. I thought this was because he was worried about holding his liquor, but apparently not, because he didn't show the slightest buzz sign. Robyn was effectively playing through the drunkness in a form that would make Uta Hagen proud. But cut to the bedroom, her eyes rolling, lips dropping, and every other subtlety is gone - did she forget she was drunk? It's hard to layer a performance when you're a teenager simulating sex in front of an adult film crew, but they handled that aspect well.

There wasn't much of an arc either, which is more the writing than performances to blame. Jack starts off with a particular look on his face riding a bike to open the movie, and he ends up that way, just with a crown on his head. A lot of times I looked at Jack and I kept seeing the same thing, which is consistent for reality, but in cinema it doesn't reflect the growth or challenges we hope to witness. There isn't a lot of change. In an 80 minute picture, there shouldn't be, but something a little more than what we get would be nice. He gets up and stands up for himself more than he would've at the beginning, he opens up to his cousin in a way he hoped not to; nothing too powerful, and that's okay, but it's not that interesting either. It kind of forces a "why are we watching this?" response.