The King of Staten Island 2020
This movie got surprisingly good reviews, though Judd Apatow’s movies often seem to get better reviews than they should. So I was a little wary going into this, especially because Pete Davidson already seems so messed up that why would I want to watch a movie about him? And certainly the first part of the movie is rough go as Davidson’s character (let’s call him Pete) smokes a lot of weed, seems incapable of dealing with himself or other people positively, and is just generally obnoxious. If forced, he will behave and starts to try to make some changes, but the movie still almost lost me when the restaurant he works at makes him fight the other employees for the tip jar, which was just dumb. I stuck with it anyway and eventually it got better, if almost a little too sweet and sentimental for its own good. Still, there are some good characters and eventually you get a few laughs, even though it still is kind of dark as Pete deals with the death of his father years before. Too often the movie feels thrown together by a group of friends without much of a script, so it certainly didn’t change my mind about Apatow or Davidson, but it wasn’t terrible.
Written: 05 Feb 2021
Owned on: Digital