The King of Staten Island review

THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND: 

A LITTLE UNEVEN, BUT THIS COMING-OF-AGE DRAMEDY SUCCESSFULLY SHOWCASES JUDD APATOW’S MORE MATURE SIDE AS A DIRECTOR! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Pete Davidson in The King of Staten Island

            A 24-year-old high school dropout who lost his firefighter father when he was young, tries to get his life together in The King of Staten Island. The new comedy-drama film from director Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Trainwreck) and written by and starring Pete Davidson (Saturday Night Live, The Jesus Rolls, The Suicide Squad), loosely based on his own life as Davidson lost his father, who was a firefighter during the September 11 attacks. 

            That’s some pretty heavy subject matter especially for someone like Judd Apatow to bring to the screen, as he is usually known for directing comedies like Knocked Up and Trainwreck. But you know what? Despite some flaws, Apatow brings The King of Staten Island to the screen wonderfully in one of his more mature outings as a director by blending his trademark comedic tone with genuine drama, and a compelling performance by Davidson as the film’s protagonist. 

            The film follows Scott Carlin (Davidson), who ever since his firefighter father died in a fire when he was young has been a case of arrested development. Now in his mid-20s and has achieved very little but desires to pursue his dream of becoming a tattoo artist, Scott lives with his exhausted ER nurse mother Margie (Marisa Tomei-My Cousin Vinny, Crazy Stupid Love, Spider-Man: Homecoming/Far From Home) while his ambitious younger sister Claire (Maude Apatow-Knocked Up, Funny People, Euphoria) heads off to college. 

            He spends most of his time smoking weed, hanging out with his friends, and is secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley-Mary Shelley, White Boy Rick, The Morning Show). However, Scott gets one hell of a wakeup call when he discovers his mom has been seeing a loudmouth firefighter named Ray (Bill Burr-Breaking Bad, F Is for Family, Daddy’s Home 1 and 2) whose son Scott attempted to draw a tattoo on after being asked, but ran away after drawing a single line. 

            Initially, Scott does not like the idea of his mother dating another fireman because it reminds him all too much of his dad and tries to break them up. However, this sets off a chain of events forcing him to fight with his grief and take his first tentative steps toward moving forward in his life. 

            The film also stars Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, Desperado, The Big Lebowski) as Papa, Pamela Adlon (King of the Hill, Recess, Bumblebee) as Gina, Jimmy Tatro (22 Jump Street, American Vandal, Stuber) as Firefighter Savage, Kevin Corrigan (Grounded for Life, The Departed, Superbad) as Joe, Dominic Lombardozzi (A Bronx Tale, Cold Pursuit, The Irishman) as Firefighter Lockwood, Moisés Arias (The Kings of Summer, Ender’s Game, Pitch Perfect 3) as Igor, and Cathy Aquilino (Girl Code) as Tara. 

            Overall, The King of Staten Island may not live up to Apatow’s earlier work, but it shows that he can do more than raunchy comedies with a lot of pot smoking and sex jokes. He is able to blend this mature subject matter with his trademark style of comedy and for the most part it works. 

            At times, it can be a little unfocused like one-minute Scott will be smoking pot with his friends and making crude jokes and getting into all kinds of wacky shenanigans followed by a heated argument and fight between him and Ray. Sometimes it feels like the movie isn’t sure whether it wants to extremely funny or really dramatic, in my opinion it mostly works aside from a few awkward moments. 

            The only other issue I have with this movie is the length, the film clocks in at 2 hours and 17 minutes which to me felt too long for something like this. It’s a movie about a 24-year-old man trying to figure out what to do with his life, this could have easily been sliced down to an hour and a half movie and it would have been fine, probably better. 

I was never bored by it or anything but there are some slow moments that I felt could have been cut and I did notice the runtime around the middle. It isn’t overwhelmingly long, but the runtime was rather noticeable and could have been shorter. 

The highlight of this movie are the performances, particularly from Pete Davidson, Marisa Tomei, and Bill Burr. Granted, I haven’t seen Pete Davidson in many films or TV shows but his performance in this is really good and given that this is a very personal project for him you can see elements of both the character and the actor whenever he’s onscreen. 

At first, I was ready to hate Davidson’s character because he starts out as this extremely unlikable, arrogant, and irresponsible jerk who quickly gets on everyone’s nerves. But you understand what he’s going through and as the film progresses, he learns the errors of his ways and tries to make everything right, he even has some heartfelt bonding moments with Bill Burr and the two kids. 

Bill Burr’s character was a pleasant surprise because on the surface you’d probably think he’d be just a straight up asshole, but like Scott has a revelation by the end learns the value of family. It’s kind of like Mr. Woodcock…except made by much smarter people who knew what they were doing, even Marisa Tomei has some scene-stealing moments though not quite as many as Davidson and Burr. 

The King of Staten Island is a funny and thoughtful coming-of-age story and one of Judd Apatow’s more mature outings as a director. A little rough around the edges and lengthy, but the charm of the film’s cast keeps the movie afloat. 

This is definitely a trip to Staten Island worth taking.