Review of The Kings of Summer (2013) by Zane U — 14 Jun 2013

Fantastic movie and fantastic meditation on gender. Kings of Summer can be read as some as "just another coming-of-age" story, but it's so much better than that. When I think of coming-of-age films, my mind instantly jumps to Stand By Me. In that movie (forgive me for painting with broad strokes about a movie I haven't seen in a long time), you see a bunch of boys going out and doing "boy things" that give them the perspective to later transition into manhood. The Kings of Summer kind of says fuck that.

The three boys (high school freshmen) want to be treated like men. When their parents don't respect their adolescent desires for "masculine independence" it drives them to run away and build a man cave with their bare hands in the woods, where they can hunt their food and do whatever the hell they want. Perhaps because they're teenagers, but more likely because of their subscription to "I do what I want to do" masculinity, they never once consider the impact that their actions have on their parents. The closest they get to reflecting on their perception of masculinity is when they grow bored of "boys will be boys" and agree that the only thing they're missing is "a woman's touch." Enter an admittedly contrived love triangle. By this point in the movie, I was getting a little pissed off to see the solid and simple coming-of-age story seemingly devolve into a cliche Yoko Ono breakup and foreseeing a "bros before how" conclusion.

Mercifully, this movie is smarter than that. It challenges what boys grow up thinking of masculinity and pride and power over nature, etc. The hunter is not "manlier" than the gatherer. The comfortable-in-his-skin weirdo is no less "masculine" than the smirking kid with the tough-guy mustache. The love of a girl is not a prize in some sort of "competition of manhood" that should justifiably drive a wedge through friendships. And a self-loathing father transitioning to single-parenthood is capable of the big task of raising his son, no matter how big and unmanageable the "wonton of parenting" seems to be.