Judd Apatow’s humor is my kind of humor. Actually, I should preface that some. The movies that Apatow directs (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, This Is 40, Funny People, Trainwreck) are my kind of humor. The films that he is merely a producer for are hit or miss. While I love Kicking and Screaming, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Step Brothers, Bridesmaids, Get Him to the Greek, and The Big Sick, there are just as many of his produced films that I am not a fan of, most notably Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. If anything, I wish I would stop producing altogether and spend more time writing and stepping behind the camera.
Not being a massive Pete Davidson (Saturday Night Live, Bodies Bodies Bodies), I didn’t have much interest in seeing The King of Staten Island. Not helping matters was that the film was one of the few movies released at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when theaters often ran movies with zero people in attendance. I would go so far as to say that the film fell off my radar more than just not wanting to see it. However, the film has appeared on numerous streaming services and cable channels over the past few years. I’ve caught a few minutes here and a few minutes there. I expected it to be Davidson in some sort of Will Ferrell or John C. Reilly hit-or-miss cornball humor. My brief snippets allowed glimpses that the film was something more. Its 76%/83% Rotten Tomatoes scores further convinced me that this film deserved its chance to be watched. While The King of Staten Island is far from laugh-out-loud funny and, likely, a film I’ll forget about quickly, there was enough whimsical charm in a story that felt so down-to-earth and relatable that a parallel story could be happening in my community, as I write this. Not so ironic as a highlight was Apatow’s writing and direction. More ironic was how Davidson carried the film from frame to frame.
Davidson stars as Scott, a twenty-something with no direction in his life. He lives at home with his mom, Margie (Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead). His father was a firefighter who died in the line of duty years before (as a side note, Davidson’s father died in the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attack). Scott is unemployed and not actively searching for work despite having a network of connections who could find him employment instantly. Not helping matters is that his younger sister, Claire (Maude Apatow – Other People, Funny People), is on her way to start her first year of college. Scott is sort of dating Kelsey (Bel Powley – White Boy Rick, The Diary of a Teenage Girl). She wants a relationship. He wants to keep it casual, not because he doesn’t like her, but to further Scott’s purposeless journey.
Scott does like tattooing people. He has a far-fetched dream of opening the (first ever?) tattoo restaurant. There are a couple of problems to that pipe dream, the first of which is that he isn’t a very good tattooist. He works on his craft by inking up many of his close friends. His work is “inconsistent” at best, botching the arms, legs, back, and wherever else his friends will allow him to practice.
The King of State Island isn’t groundbreaking. It’s such a basic story that you might ask yourself halfway through if it was worth making, especially if you were expecting a laugh-out-loud comedy. The movie is much more This Is 40 than it is Knocked Up. Apatow creates a lead character who seems simple on the exterior but has a lot going on in his head. Davidson brings Scott to life in an affable, kind, supportive, and sincere way, even when pressed with unfavorable circumstances. The Apatow-Davidson pairing makes this film work. While the film does not need to be sought out, if you find it streaming on one of your services and have a couple of hours to offer it, The King of Staten Island is worth the watch.
Plot 7.5/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 8/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 7/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 9.5/10
81.5%
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