The Kings of Summer

First off, I'd like to say that this is my first ever movie review. I'd been prolonging until I find a non-blockbuster movie that can really caught me deeply and The Kings of Summer happened to be the one.

The acting in this movie is basically original, starring Nick Robinson who played Joe perfectly well as a fifteen year-old desperately wanting to get out of his dad's house under his rules just like a typical teenager. Then there's his best friend, Gabriel Basso who played as Patrick who loves his parents but also desperately wanting to get out of their house because of how their parents treat him as a child. Moises Arias as Biaggio, who I think really suits for the role of a physically small friend of both of them who appeared out of nowhere and could really get things funny because he's that lovable and warm. Joe's dad, Nick Offerman as Frank, played a great grumpy father who gets mad and cranky easily in this movie and then there's Erin Moriarty as Kelly, which plays the girl who Joe had a crush on.

The movie at first started just like any ordinary drama movie, but the various shots and angles made it look pretty smart in the beginning. As you watch longer, the movie started getting interesting to where it's going, although you can really guess what will happen next. The Kings of Summer with its "Into The Wild" theme is packed with humor and a bunch of emotional feeling will be involved throughout the movie. Another plus point for this movie is the selection of songs in the background or soundtracks, how each song suits perfectly well based on the actions the characters were doing which really built up my point of view towards the movie.

What caught me the most is how the movie is directed and made it as if he really wants us to feel to be like each one of the character involved there. The shots on the scenery and "wild" views in the forest really succeeded on making me re-think and went deeper about how there's more to the movie than what I've actually seen. The movie does have some really cliché teenager scenes, however, I like how it stays original and remain unpretentious by showing that there's a big chance that conflicts may happen between friends and families but then in the end you will always come back to them, by not having all the cheesy fights nor a corny truce. It sticks to reality and shows people that it is truly what it is.

Not considering how old you are, I really recommend you to watch this movie with anyone for you're about to feel that youth blood pumping down your streams and actually get something out of it. Praise for Jordan Vogt-Roberts for making this movie as perfect, my eyes were glistening right at the very last scene of the movie and at the same time drawing a smile on my face.

Three unhappy teenagers run away from the sophisticated city life and take refuge in nature, where they plan to build a makeshift home and live off the land, to finally be masters of their own destiny. Once you arrive at your destination, you make it reality, however, realize that the wild is much tougher as the imagined.

Biaggio (Moises Arias), the very rare embodiment of social awkwardness and complete and total lack of personal sophistication teenager, that invokes a combination of amazement, bewilderment, and pity simultaneously from the common viewer. It's a role that cannot be explained...only watched. He is quite possibly one of the best comedic performances I have ever seen a young performer give. It's a wonderfully bizarre role that fully encompasses both the awkwardness and the sincerity of a social misfit. The role is so over-the-top that it's amazing that Arias can make it look so natural and genuine. His acting was spot on and absolutely hilarious. Loved it!

"The Kings of Summer" is a film you need to accept on its own terms. It's not a Hollywood production, it has a relatively low budget and it has a few plot problems. Sure, the characters might not be 100% believable or even really that likable--but, if you sit back and watch it with modest expectations, you'll find the good easily outweighs the bad.

The film is about two disaffected teens. Both hate it at home and they want to get out...but how? When one comes up with an insane plan to move into the woods and build their own shack, the other, reluctantly comes along for the plan. There is a third--and that kid, Biaggio, is a real cipher. He's bizarre and in the film mostly for comic relief--though I found myself liking him the best of the three. But when he disappears, no one seems to notice...he's that sort of a kid. But the two main characters are initially happy and their running away seems to be working out well...at least for a time.

Overall, this is a film that folks who only enjoy traditional movies will probably NOT like very much. As for me, I have a higher than normal tolerance for the unusual and found a lot of nice performances and moments in the film. Worth seeing and clever.

Three kids, feeling their way through the anxieties of their mid-teens, get together to build a summer retreat in the woods and escape from a droll season in their parents' homes. It's hearty and funny, a great reminder of the unseen handcuff between independence and responsibility that floats into our lives at that age. The grown-ups are particularly hilarious as stiff, out-of-touch caricatures; everything we see them as during adolescence, rolled up and amplified by a few degrees. Moises Arias is the best of the young actors, playing a weird McLovin type who somehow falls into the partnership with two long-term buddies. His heavy gaze alone is usually enough to get me chuckling, and the cryptic, emotionally-detached lines that usually sprout from his lips moments later are absurdity at its best. It can get a little self-absorbed at times, and spirals off into navel-gazing in the third act, but for a good stretch in the middle it's prime coming-of-age goodness.

Debut feature director Jordan Vogt-Roberts' Kings of Summer (née Toy's House) is a coming of age story of 2 best friends who decide to build a house in the woods to escape their families and their enigmatic friend Biaggio who accompanies them.

The three kids give great performances and all seem so natural in their characters; Moises Arias is exceptionally funny as the oddball Biaggio. I caught the third ever showing at Sundance London followed by a director's Q&A and he remarked that many moments are just the kid's messing around and sometimes unaware they are being filmed. The montage scene of the kids playing in the woods and banging on the pipe that opens the film was filmed all in one day with just the kids, the D.P and director and is so naturally the sort of nonsense a group of teenagers would get up to.

An amazing supporting cast including the always wonderful Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Megan Mullally and Mary Lynn Rajskub perfectly deliver the material; it's an impressive cast for such a small film.

Début writer Chris Galletta delivered a cracking script that delivers on the laughs and also has some strong emotional moments as the boys inevitably fallout over a girl and we see the kid's fractious relationship with their parents.

A great mix of classic coming of age tales such as Stand By Me and the indie comedies of recent times that hits the comedic and dramatic notes without ever being saccharine, annoyingly quirky or overly morbid as so many indie comedies fall into.

I highly recommend the film; it will transport you back to your terrible but wonderful teenage years and is genuinely hilarious, I can't imagine a single person not loving this film.

Rating- 8/10