The King of Staten Island
Directed by Judd Apatow
Review written by Owen Selby
Although I’d never seen a Judd Apatow film prior to this one, it would be accurate to say my mental association with films like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up is that they belong to the broad comedy genre. The King of Staten Island is too understated to be considered broad, but it’s not short of humorous moments and the dialogue and acting certainly had me laughing enough to nicely balance with the more serious moments and somewhat hit-and-miss emotional beats.
The film follows Scott Carlin, a twenty-four-year old whose life is going nowhere and is held back by the fact that his father, who was a firefighter, died on the job when Scott was seven. The film’s premise is based on the star Pete Davidson who has struggled with depression, and whose real-life father was a fireman who died in 9/11. Scott lives with his mother (Marisa Tomei) and is outshined by his younger sister (Maude Apatow, the director’s daughter), who goes off to college and, according to Scott, is lucky because she’s too young to know how awesome their father was and therefore doesn’t miss him as much as her brother. Scott spends most of his days smoking weed with his friends and practising drawing tattoos, as his one aspiration in life is to become a tattoo artist.
The inciting incident which kick-starts Scott’s arc in the film is when his actions aggravate Ray Bishop (Bill Burr), a firefighter who enters into a relationship with Scott’s mum Margie. Ray and Margie become increasingly keen for Scott develop more independence, almost forcing Scott to become more active in pursuing his goals and engaging in some self-growth. It took a while for me to become interested in the Ray-Margie subplot, as whilst I appreciated what it did for Scott’s character I didn’t find either to be particularly engaging characters. It’s easy to see why Marisa Tomei has recently spoken out about her disgruntlement at being typecast in the ‘mum role’, as she isn’t given a whole lot to do here for an actor of her calibre, and there is definitely less dynamism than her presence in the Spider-Man films offers, for example. That’s not to say there’s anything particularly wrong with Tomei or Burr’s performances — Burr is given a wider range of scenes and aspects of his character to play with — but I did fail to really connect with their characters.
On the flip side, Bel Powley’s scenes as Scott’s romantic interest Kelsey are amongst the best in the film. Kelsey is keen to take their relationship to the next level, but typically Scott is afraid to make such a commitment in his life. These two actors bring out the best in each other, as their scenes have energy and the tension in their relationship provides what is easily the most interesting dramatic beats in the film. Kelsey is a fully-realised character despite not having that much screen-time, and that is principally down to Powley’s acting, as she takes already good writing and elevates it to make Kelsey a believable and relatable character. Maude Apatow is similarly impressive as Claire, and her heart-to-hearts and overall dynamic with her brother make for good scenes which highlight the protagonist’s troubles without it being heavy-handed. Also a word for Steve Buscemi who at one point was in danger of having this review describe him as criminally under-used, but has a couple of strong moments by the end of the film and does not disappoint with the small amount of material he is given.
Of course, at the end of the day this film lives or dies on Davidson’s performance, and he really does do a good job of making Scott a likeable character, whilst not attempting to mask over his obvious flaws. Davidson has described the film as his likely direction in life had he not become a comedian, but I never felt like he was just doing an impression of himself, rather that all of the acting choices he made were in service of the character and the film. His delivery of dialogue is funny when it needs to be, and his awkwardness provides a great platform for other actors to express frustration and/or suspicion, depending on the situation. The film deserves credit for there not being a singular moment where Scott’s arc is pushed forward, as it’s a slow but gradual process for him to find his place in the world. That can leave the ending to feel almost anti-climactic, as there isn’t the neat and perfect end to a character arc that films so often provide, but perhaps that’s for the best as it’s important to remember that growing up isn’t really a process which can be wholly depicted in the space of two hours. The King of Staten Island is a very pleasant and enjoyable film that does manage to connect emotionally with the audience. I was never bored, but not every situation or problem that Scott has to deal with is particularly interesting and certain side-characters provide the film with more energy than others. I recommend this film as a good way to spend two hours, either at the movies or for when it inevitably appears on streaming.
Verdict: 3.5/5
The King of Staten Island is in its last week in theatres, and is scheduled for release on DVD/Blu-Ray and streaming from 28 October 2020.
