Review of The Kings of Summer (2013) by Barry T — 15 Apr 2014

There is something agreeable about the cast and the characters, but the mood and plot do not know what they want to be. Two teenage best friends grow weary of their parents and run away to live in the woods.

A third eccentric loner type of boy joins them. All the groundwork is sound, but then things start to stray. It starts with a promising snappy angst driven humor. It establishes hazy conflicts that suggest that these characters will bond, mature, and confront their inner demons together.

The problem is the story about friendship and family dysfunction turns into a messy adolescent love story with a side of friends betraying one another. Some seriousness and meaningful content taking center stage while mixing in sarcastic humor feels right.

Instead, the laughter is lost and the melodrama takes over. Even worse, the characters do not really show growth. Things just happen and there is no reason or meaning to them. The fractured relationships simply resolve themselves with no actions or real conversations.

Everything abruptly wraps up. It is a shame to let such good characters and casting float through with no direction. The inconsistencies in the director and the story keep it down.