The Kings Of Summer sees three teenagers, leader Joe, strongman Patrick and weirdo Biaggio, leave home for a summer, away from their overbearing or antagonistic parents, and build their own house in the middle of the woods, where no-one can find them. Stand By Me meets The Money Pit.
From the outset, Chris Galletta's script fuels itself with genuinely funny moments and quirky character beats, namely from weirdo Biaggio who has a knack for saying something just too weird for normal human conversation, and couple that with Jordan Vogt-Roberts' simple yet stylish direction and its an interesting creative display that looks astounding and feels honest for the most part. Dramatic beats that permeate the opening act are superbly handled, namely the dysfunctional relationship between Joe and his father, a funny and emotionally brilliant Nick Offerman, and the attempts of sister Heather (Alison Brie) to keep the family going. This strong emotional core is well handled and often quite painful to watch, even when the film pushes for jokes, it pushes whilst it bites.
Patrick's parents, Megan Mullally and Marc Evan Jackson, are too nice, but always passive aggressive, imposing and are causing Patrick to break out in hives. When he goes missing, they blame Joe automatically, and don't take much consideration into how much they've messed their kid up.
As they build Toy's House (The film's original title, named as Joe's surname is Toy), the town launches a manhunt for the kids, whilst the three grow facial hair, learn to hunt, at a grocers, and practice wielding swords.
It's all coming-of-age sweet with a nice edge of modern teenage angst to it, and it all falls apart when a girl enters the world.
The third act struggles, as the film gets darker and darker and ultimately ends with an overly convenient series of conflicts and appearances, but The Kings Of Summer is an often funny, inventive, stylistic look at teenage friends, one to make you nostalgic of memories you probably didn't even have. A real 80's vibe thrown in with the complexities of modern life. Leads Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso and Moises Arias are enjoyable to watch, can carry the emotional weight of the film and deliver jokes when required too, whilst adult performers Mullally, Brie, Offerman, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Kamail Nanjiani bring extra comedy to the rest of the film's world, and liven up what could be equally tedious and depressing segments involving missing children.
I wouldn't be surprised if directed Jordan Vogt-Roberts finds himself working on a big blockbuster soon like many of last year's counter-parts, with a strong visual style and an ability to handle tonal changes with relative ease, The Kings Of Summer isn't the best Big Beach production of the past year, nor the best teen film of its ilk, but it's a nostalgic, funny and emotional film that really yearns for simpler days. With a strong cast, clever writing and wonderful direction, the third act may find itself falling down a few too many holes, but there's still so much to enjoy. And stay through the short credits at the end for a nice little easter egg from the film's breakout star.