j* movie reviews 2020

The King of Staten Island (2020)

Weird and wild black comedy type thing.

This film is pretty different. It might never have jumped to the top of our list to see, but it was a new film showing in cinema, so we went. It's sort of one of those coming-of-age stories that sort-of isn't. Our main guy, Scott (Pete Davidson) is a down-on-his-luck 24 year old who's grown up on the wrong side of the ferry tracks. Staten Island is pitched as the suburb of gritty, grimy life.... The alt-Brooklyn.

Anyway, Scott has a rag-tag bunch of friends, still lives at home with his Mum and has dreams of becoming a tattoo artist. It's kind of hard to describe the plot more than that, other than to say his tattooing is whack and he says wildly inappropriate things a lot. It is a meandering tale and it does go for a long time at 2hr 16mins.

Some aspects of this, I would say, reminded me a little of Mallrats. Although it is much less surreal and far more gritty, it does have similar man-boy issues. Perhaps most interestingly, it feels kind of timeless. Like if you'd told me this was made in the 90s, I think I could have believed it.

The comedy is funny but also bleak-black a lot of the time. If you're up for neuro-complicated character struggling to find his way, it has some aspects that will entertain.

J* gives it 3 star