Independent Cinema writes: Life can be so rough when you’re a teenager. Girls or boys, parents, school, bullying; it all becomes such a struggle that all we’d really want to do is run away. You would want to find a new home with your friends and just grow up without anyone else to interfere. The Kings of Summer tries to convey this idea several times in what feels like 2 and a half hours but is really 93 incredibly tedious minutes. Now certain films have tried to show the adolescent fear of growing up or actual need to grow up and most of them just don’t end up having any lasting power. I could probably only pick a handful of movies (all of which are probably from the 80′s) that have truly succeeded in the actual experience of the angst and fun of adolescence. And as I’ve hinted at before this movie fails on almost every level to be something real.
The COVID-19 pandemic has all gotten us a little stir crazy. It is hard to get by this challenging period of time without temporarily slipping into another dimension to get the space and freedom we miss, and movies have provided us just that escape. From a rock'n'roll journey to Afghanistan, to a hilarious summer vacation spent in a Mexican prison, here are 6 perfect summer escapes films that take you somewhere else.
We'd had our eye on director Jordan Vogt-Roberts for a while after his excellent short "Successful Alcoholics," so were almost nervous to see how his feature debut, a coming-of-age comedy about three kids who build a house in the woods to escape their overbearing parents one summer. But we shouldn't have worried; when the film premiered at Sundance, we said it marked "the arrival of a fresh new comic voice." And now, the best glimpse of the film ahead of its opening next week has arrived, courtesy of a red-band trailer over at Funny Or Die.
Jeremy of The Daily Rotation wrote, "Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts makes his full-length feature debut with The Kings of Summer, a coming-of-age tale that wisely balances comedy and drama in the hands of mostly unknown actors. The Kings of Summer is a growing tale about shifting from childhood into adulthood, while also learning to deal with the relationships in life that you have, even if they’re ones that you don’t fully understand the value of just yet. Vogt-Roberts’ direction is oftentimes beautiful in its capturing of the great outdoors, but he shows his true strength as a filmmaker when he fully focuses on the relationships between the characters and how each person chooses to deal with them."
