The King of State Island. (15.)
Directed by Judd Apatow.
Starring Pete Davidson, Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr, Bel Powley, Maude Apatow and Steve Buscemi. Available on demand. 137 mins
During lockdown, film distributors large and small have struggled with the ethical and financial dilemmas of skipping a cinema release and going direct to Video On Demand. Universal has been threatened with a boycott by cinema chain AMC for breaking the convention of the theatrical window by releasing Trolls World Tour direct to home audiences. The animated sequel did pretty well and that's money in the bank but how much more might it have made in cinemas? The speculative mathematics of it are complicated: weighing up the 80% of the $20 they get for a streaming purchase that will cover one whole family, over the 50% they get of a whole family paying individually to see it at the cinema.
Of course, in the case of a semi-autobiographical comedy featuring an American stand up best known over here for briefly being engaged to Ariana Grande and Youtube Saturday Night Live clips, a British VOD release is surely the obvious choice.
Over the last decade and a half director Judd Apatow has become the master of making sharp 90/100 minute comedies that somehow take up over two hours of your time. Even if you loved them, films like Knocked Up, Funny People and This Is 40 rarely left audiences wanting more.
He's also become something of a star-maker but this is way more than he did for Amy Schumer in Trainwreck. In his first lead role, 27-year-old Davidson gets to do his life story, but as a failure. The fictional Davidson is a weed-smoking, ADD-afflicted man-boy wasting away his days living at home in the least mythic of New York's five boroughs with mother (Tomei) and feeling hard done because his firefighter father died when he was just seven. Fictional Davidson is much like Actual Davidson, just without the weekly TV appearances and stand up career.
On-screen he resembles a boy band prototype put together on a laboratory slab; a rudimentary approximation of James Franco who flips between heartthrob good looks and looking unevolved. His whole body is plastered with ghastly tattoos. I know "ghastly" is redundant in that sentence but as an aspirant tattooist, the low quality of his needlework is an integral part of his character.
The film is brave in that it doesn't shy away from showing its lead character as unreasonable and self-centred, but soft in the way that it ultimately deals with that. You may choose not to be as forgiving of him as the film is. The film is funny but doesn't have any of the really big laughs of Apatow's previous films. Perversely, this may make the film's excessive length easier to get through. In previous Apatow films, the big laughs made you resent the lulls in between them, but this settles into a relaxed groove early one with everything operating on the same level of mild amusement.
Crucially though, the film doesn't demonstrate why Davidson was deemed worthy of this kind of spotlight, what it was that made him worthy of such an indulgent star vehicle. He is a relaxed and confident screen presence, but often the supporting characters, particularly Powley as his secret girlfriend, seem more interesting.
Directed by Judd Apatow.
Starring Pete Davidson, Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr, Bel Powley, Maude Apatow and Steve Buscemi. Available on demand. 137 mins
During lockdown, film distributors large and small have struggled with the ethical and financial dilemmas of skipping a cinema release and going direct to Video On Demand. Universal has been threatened with a boycott by cinema chain AMC for breaking the convention of the theatrical window by releasing Trolls World Tour direct to home audiences. The animated sequel did pretty well and that's money in the bank but how much more might it have made in cinemas? The speculative mathematics of it are complicated: weighing up the 80% of the $20 they get for a streaming purchase that will cover one whole family, over the 50% they get of a whole family paying individually to see it at the cinema.
Of course, in the case of a semi-autobiographical comedy featuring an American stand up best known over here for briefly being engaged to Ariana Grande and Youtube Saturday Night Live clips, a British VOD release is surely the obvious choice.
Over the last decade and a half director Judd Apatow has become the master of making sharp 90/100 minute comedies that somehow take up over two hours of your time. Even if you loved them, films like Knocked Up, Funny People and This Is 40 rarely left audiences wanting more.
He's also become something of a star-maker but this is way more than he did for Amy Schumer in Trainwreck. In his first lead role, 27-year-old Davidson gets to do his life story, but as a failure. The fictional Davidson is a weed-smoking, ADD-afflicted man-boy wasting away his days living at home in the least mythic of New York's five boroughs with mother (Tomei) and feeling hard done because his firefighter father died when he was just seven. Fictional Davidson is much like Actual Davidson, just without the weekly TV appearances and stand up career.
On-screen he resembles a boy band prototype put together on a laboratory slab; a rudimentary approximation of James Franco who flips between heartthrob good looks and looking unevolved. His whole body is plastered with ghastly tattoos. I know "ghastly" is redundant in that sentence but as an aspirant tattooist, the low quality of his needlework is an integral part of his character.
The film is brave in that it doesn't shy away from showing its lead character as unreasonable and self-centred, but soft in the way that it ultimately deals with that. You may choose not to be as forgiving of him as the film is. The film is funny but doesn't have any of the really big laughs of Apatow's previous films. Perversely, this may make the film's excessive length easier to get through. In previous Apatow films, the big laughs made you resent the lulls in between them, but this settles into a relaxed groove early one with everything operating on the same level of mild amusement.
Crucially though, the film doesn't demonstrate why Davidson was deemed worthy of this kind of spotlight, what it was that made him worthy of such an indulgent star vehicle. He is a relaxed and confident screen presence, but often the supporting characters, particularly Powley as his secret girlfriend, seem more interesting.
