Sundance London 2013 Review – The Kings of Summer (2013)

Originally titled, Toy’s House and taking in elements of Stand By Me and even The Goonies, The Kings of Summer is a coming of age tale about three boys who run away from home to start a new life in the woods without rules. It’s a charming tale with a lot of laughs and good performances, but is ultimately a little forgettable.

Your enjoyment of The Kings of Summer will be based upon several things, but the threat of ‘movie logic’ could lead you to question a couple of items. Number one, just how did these kids build this well designed and functional house in a matter of days and number two, these 15 year olds sure do look a lot like they’re 25. I’m not knocking the film for its casting as they all do a great job, but I can’t remember too many 15 year olds who could grow full beards in a couple of days. Plus they make an error in Street Fighter II sound effects, a crime against death in some eyes.

That above paragraph is a bit facetious and I don’t want you to think I’m slating the film for its casting as the two lead boys are great in their roles. Nick Robinson is perfect as Joe Toy who runs away from his father because he doesn’t want to end up like him and Gabriel Basso is great as the best friend Patrick. I did find however that Joe’s character took a mid-movie turn which wasn’t overly believable. Even at 15, you don’t fall in love and suffer from heart break to this degree.

The film is also helped along by a fantastic supporting cast including Mary Lynn Rajskub as the slightly bored Captain Davis and Megan Mullally perfecting the ‘funny-but-I’m-glad-she’s-not-my-Mum’ performance. Erin Moriarty gives a very sweet performance as the likeable but dull Kelly and Alison Brie is underused as sister Heather. Everyone does their part and it really adds to the film’s quality.

But the star of the show without a shadow of a doubt is Nick Offerman as Joe’s father Frank. His bitter view of the world is capped off superbly by his dry delivery and ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude. He takes everything that makes his Ron Swanson character funny and cranks it up to eleven. He also has the most interesting character arc of a hateful man who gets angry about Chinese food to a caring father who realises he could be to blame for his son’s disappearance. If there is one thing that needs to come from this movie, it’s Nick Offerman getting more work.

Offerman does get the most laughs but is challenged by Moises Arias as the slightly off-kilter Biaggio. While I did find a lot of humour in the character, I did feel like Chris Galletta was trying too hard to write a ‘wacky’ character, which is a popular trait in the independent movie world. Each one of his lines and moments felt so forced and almost out of place for this movie – like he’d been written for a different script but got moved over into this one. I feel like I would have enjoyed The Kings of Summer more without his character there – seen as though he doesn’t really add much emotional weight to the story.

However it’s a very tight movie and the 90 minute runtime flies by without a moment’s pause. This does hurt the movie somewhat as I felt certain aspects of the movie (them bonding over building the house for example) could have had more time spent on them to help with the character arcs and inevitable betrayal. It rushed by so quickly that I didn’t really find that the characters had the emotional journeys they should have done from a coming of age story.

The Kings of Summer is a very entertaining movie, but it’s also quite forgettable. There is nothing inherently wrong with it but there isn’t enough in there to write home about aside from some strong performances and Nick Offerman. I do think a lot of people will like it, but I don’t think there is enough in there for it to stand among the greats in the coming of age genre.