Review of The Kings of Summer (2013) by Austin R — 02 Mar 2015

A sweet, very funny coming of age story, along the lines of Stand By Me, although way more lighthearted and comical and less likely to break your fucking heart in two than Rob Reiner's 80's classic.

The story of three lads who decide to build and move into their own house in the woods in order to escape their humdrum lives. It's an extremely likable, lovely movie, with a delicate touch and three fantastic performance's from it's hugely talented young leads, Nick Robinson is a real find as our main protagonist Joe, who comes up with the idea for the woodland retreat, Gabriel Basso ( who played cowardly weiner Martin in Super 8) is a strong presence, truly impressing as best bud Patrick, but the film is totally stolen by the utterly brilliant Moises Arias as the gloriously bizarre Biaggio, this dude is a whirlwind of strange, off kilter, unpredictable hilarity in any scene he graces, he's magnificent.

That's not to say it's only the leads film, there are a who's who of talented comedy actors filling the movie with class and quality including Community's Alison Brie and the wonderfully dead pan Nick Offerman.

This is one of those criminally under-served movies that doesnt quite make it's way to peoples attentions meanwhile mainstream garbage gets all the bucks, so seek out this great little film.