I meet men at work and they're not all criminals - some of them are victims.
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Movies of 2020...
#27 : The King Of Staten Island
Judd Apatow hooks up with Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson to create funny, idiosyncratic comedy: Davidson plays a slacker tattooist whose life has been overshadowed by his firefighter dad’s death.
And for the first time in a long time - a film I've heard of and one I'm actually looking forward to watching. I've not been huge fan of any Pete Davidson stuff I've seen so far, but I've heard he's good in this and I'm also hoping I might actually get a giggle or two out of it.
And well, it's a funny and surprisingly charming film - in a lot of ways quite old-fashioned and family friendly, with various characters learning that maybe the other characters aren't quite as bad as they initially thought, which results in them everyone learning and growing. But with a lot of drug references and swearing thrown in to make it not as quite so family friendly after all - it's a film that manages to use the C word in an amusing fashion, which always kinda impresses me (but remember, swearing isn't big and it isn't clever, kids). It also features a LOT of VERY BAD tattoos - amusingly bad.
It has some surprisingly clever throwaway lines in it - if you're not paying attention you'll totally miss them (so pay attention!). It also has some laugh-out-loud lines as well - the comedy plays at various different levels throughout the film (and I particularly liked "Don't criticise me - I respond better to encouragement" "Well I encourage you to shut the fuck up")
It's a well written film with the characters mostly being nearly believable characters - like normal personalities slightly stretched in all directions to emphasise the quirk. Which is, of course, exactly what you want from a comedy film, so all is good. I'd say that Scott (Pete Davidson's character) is possibly a little too stretched - although you also get the impression that it wasn't a stretch for Pete to play him that way given his reasonably well publicised issues with mental illness and the fact that he also had a firefighter dad (called Scott) who died on duty.
Marisa Tomei (who has been good in everything she does for so long now - My Cousin Vinny was nearly 30 years ago now) is really good as Margie, Scott's long-suffering mum and Maude Apatow also shines as Claire, his sister - although you have to wonder how she's managed to get parts in quite so many Judd Apatow films (and yes, I'm being completely unfair here). These two women provide the beating heart of the film, dealing with the various man-babies in the best way they can - until they've had enough of them. Honourable mentions also go to Bill Burr and Bel Powley for their fine supporting roles - and the kids are adorable as well!
The film has several threads in common with Saint Frances - it's maybe not quite so charming, but it definitely runs along similar lines. It's also probably only the third film on the list so far that the average person might consider watching (after Borat and The Invisible Man) - although I struggle to imagine Mr Davidson is quite the draw over here that he is in the US.
Whilst I'd heard this film was good, I probably wouldn't have gotten around to watching it - so I'm glad I was made to do so as part of this list because I really enjoyed it (and it a lot of ways it doesn't feel much like a "Guardian" film). I was also particularly pleasing to watch a film on this list that wasn't in any way a struggle to get through - it's been a considerable length of time since I've been able to say that . But even without that aspect, I thoroughly recommend this film - I wouldn't say it's a "great" film but it's very watchable and it's one that would appeal to a reasonable age range as well (but kids, don't laugh too hard at the drugs references or there will be awkward questions from the parents).
At the time of writing, the film is available to watch on Sky Movies or to buy at various other places - but seriously, who buys films digitally? Why would you do that?!?
Comments
Post a Comment