Pete Davidson rules Judd Apatow's laid-back 'The King of Staten Island'
Knowing that Judd Apatow directed the laid-back dramedy “The King of Staten Island,” we can predict:
1. There won't be a typical villain squaring off against a heroic main figure.
2. The funny-but-not-jokey dialogue will be delivered with well-timed punch and vigor.
3. Every character in the movie will be comically flawed, yet possess attributes to grow emotionally and win our hearts in varying degrees.
“Saturday Night Live” regular Pete Davidson proves he possesses the dramatic chops to handle a Hollywood lead as Scott Carlin, a tattoo-splattered, millennial stoner punk living with his widowed mom Margie (Marisa Tomei) in Staten Island, “the only place New Jersey looks down on.”
Scott was 7 when he lost his firefighter father in a building blaze. Since then, he has used his loss as a license to be an unfiltered source of anger, self-pity and defiant rudeness.
When he's not doing the dance of the wild bunnies with his childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley), or threatening to wear cargo shorts to a party for his sister (Maude Apatow), Scott hangs out with his pals getting high while playing video games and watching movies such as “The Purge.”
He has no plans past the next 30 seconds, yet, has a vague dream of opening up a tattoo restaurant, as he fancies himself an artist of the needle.
After 20 minutes of being weirdly engaged by Davidson's spot-on portrait of willful, youthful disconnection, Scott tries to give a 9-year-old boy a tattoo, and his hotheaded firefighter father, Ray (a brilliantly bristling Bill Burr), shows up at the Carlin home ready to bust heads ... until he meets charming Margie.
Davidson wrote this screenplay (with Apatow and David Sirius) based on his own life.
The name Carlin might be inspired by comic George Carlin, but the first name pays homage to his real father, Scott, a New York firefighter killed in the Twin Towers.
When we see Davidson attempt suicide on the Staten Island Expressway during the opening scene, we can sense some dark, personal demons being exorcised.
With his serial-killer stare and pert, twisted lips, Davidson makes the most ideally dysfunctional acting partner for Apatow since Seth Rogen starred in “Knocked Up.”
But after delivering an authentically quirky, honest first half, “The King of Staten Island” leaps into a commercial safety zone by tying everything up in a neat bundle of conventionality.
A slight disappointment, along with a suspicion that the writers must have been paid a bonus every time they used the word “Awesome!”
<b>“The King of Staten Island”</b>
★ ★ ★
Starring: Pete Davidson, Bill Burr, Marisa Tomei, Maude Apatow
Directed by: Judd Apatow
Other: A Universal Pictures release. Rated R for drug use, language, sexual situations, violence. 136 minutes