Review of The Kings of Summer (2013) by Nick O — 05 Sep 2013

"The Way Way Back" had the style and star power without forsaking the brain or the heart. It's one of the best movies of the summer. Jordan Vogt-Roberts' "The Kings of Summer" is a little stickier, but ultimately maybe even sweeter because it seems like such a personal film for the guy. It'd be sacrilege to call "Kings" the poor man's "Moonrise Kingdom". It isn't anywhere near it in terms of quality, but there's a scene in the middle here where I thought for a split second that's what this movie was going to become. I was sort of wrong? You see all of "Kings" coming and going but, when you least expect it, it hits you where you live.

"Kings" often takes how its boyhood protagonists feel about certain things -- girls most prevalently -- and externalizes it in brief dream sequences that Vogt-Roberts films CRAZY well, polished without delving into parody, that makes him a talent to watch in the future. And he rounded out for his cast some of the funniest (and most attractive, Alison Brie) people working today. The heartfelt reaction to "Kings" from audiences is deserved. We're all still THAT kid in a way, with dreams and courage and love to share; that kid torn between life being a fictive world that's solely theirs and the reality that it's everyone's. Deem it DOA if you must, because it doesn't exactly forget the coming-of-age mold. For the rest of us "The Kings of Summer" is a bottled, riotous reminder to stop just living and start ruling.

Also can we all please agree Nick Offerman is the next Bill Murray?