There are a lot of wonderful components at work in Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ feature debut— a savvy, clever screenplay, gorgeous nature-porn cinematography, a heaping helping of ‘80s nostalgia, and a genuinely funny cast—he just doesn’t quite fit them together. Every scene works in the moment, but when I took a step back from The Kings of Summer, I noticed how disjointed and shoddily constructed the production is. Vogt-Roberts aims for profundity but misses the mark as his fondness for improv-heavy long-takes and sheer outlandishness dulls the impact of the moments that engage the heart.

Chris Galletta’s screenplay is familiar material, a tale of youthful independence painted with glistening ‘80s nostalgia that invites comparison to its coming-of-age-movie older brothers (Stand By Me, Lord of the Flies), but it lacks their substance. Joe Toy (Nick Robinson), is a wiseass teen with a dad (Nick Offerman, Parks and Recreation) who’s been a verbally abusive asshole to Joe ever since his wife died. Joe has a dream of independence, of breaking free from his dad and living on his own. Joe’s a doer, so he makes this happen. He builds a shabby dumpster-hut of a house in the woods just outside of town with his best friend Patrick (Gabriel Basso) who is equally enthusiastic about escaping the clutches of his overprotective all-American parents (played by comedy vets Megan Mullally and Marc Evan Jackson). Their tiny alien/cartoon-like friend Biaggio (Moises Arias) tags along for the ride, a strange creature of a kid who spews the most random (and hilarious) one-liners I’ve heard in a long time. The merry trio live the dream, roaring and romping and stomping through the wilderness, jumping into lakes (in slow motion), living off the land (and a nearby Boston Market) and never bathing or shaving.

As I mentioned earlier, Joe’s a go-getter, so now that he’s made his first dream a reality it’s on to the next one. He invites his crush, Kelly (Erin Moriarty) out to the playhouse in hopes of working his sunglass-suave charm on her. His ploy to kindle a summer fling doesn’t play out as she falls for Patrick, the Cameron to Joe’s Bueller. The rift that forms between the best buds eventually shatters the dreams that Joe worked so hard to make real. All the while, the parents search for the boys and search themselves for the reason they drove their sons away.

What shines about The Kings of Summer is its cast, who all hit homeruns from top to bottom. Robinson hangs with the hilariously boorish and grumpy Offerman like a pro—their verbal assaults on each other are equally gut-busting. Arias is funny as hell as the out-of-this-world Biaggio, really digging into bizarre lines like “I met a dog the other day that taught me how to die”. You need to embrace your role to make lines like that work, and everybody in the film attacks with the same level of commitment.

What’s problematic is that I went from laughing out loud at Biaggio’s slapstick to staring blankly at sobering, out of place, Malick-ian montages of the kids basking in sun-soaked tall grass and splashing around in a pastoral river. In a later scene a random ‘totally wasted’ couple sloppily attempts to screw in that same river, and we’re back to slapstick again. The montages are actually quite pretty, and the drunk couple scene is funny, but they feel like they belong to different movies.

There is a lot to enjoy in The Kings of Summer, but there is also a lot to be desired. The cast’s spot-on performances are worth the price of admission, but I can’t help but think how great the film could have been, if only it were more comfortable in its own skin.

Twenty Feet From Stardom

If you’re a music fan, names like Tata Vega, Merry Clayton, and Darlene Love should be familiar to you, but chances are they aren’t. That’s because these ladies—powerhouse singers and masters of their craft—have spent their entire careers in the background, literally and figuratively, as underappreciated background singers. Director Morgan Neville plucks the gifted ladies from their usual wingwoman positions and gives them their own stage to shine on, in Twenty Feet From Stardom.

You could say that, at one time, background singers were the backbone of pop music. However, they seldom received the credit they deserved. They sang the unforgettable hooks to classic songs and got no credit, while the lead singer preened and pranced on the track and on stage. Darlene Love, a legendary background singer, was a victim of a nasty form of this musical hierarchy. She sang lead vocals on the Phil Spector hit ‘He’s a Rebel’ with her group, The Blossoms, but the song was released as a Crystals (one of Spector’s girl groups) song. Love’s name was nowhere to be found on the record.

Neville captures the undervalued vocalists exhibiting their colossal power in awe-inspiring studio session segments, but most notably, showcases their heartwarming personalities. To watch Darlene love reunite with The Blossoms after years apart and see the youth in their eyes sparkle as they reminisce makes the heart swell. Twenty Feet From Stardom will likely change the way you listen to music, which is priceless.

RATING: 7.8

The Kings of Summer

Three teenage friends (Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias), feeling suffocated by their overbearing parents, decide to build a house of their own out in the woods where their parents can never bother them again. After building their DIY bro-shack, they throw sharp objects at things, jump off of things, hit things with sticks, and live off the land (and, occasionally, a nearby Boston Market.) They’re living the dream. Then, they invite girls over. So much for the dream! Damn you, hormones!

The plot offers nothing new, nothing exciting to latch on to. This year alone, I’ve seen at least four coming-of-age stories of teenagers in revolt. The good news is, The Kings of Summer is the cream of the crop. Though the story is old hat, the sharp writing and uproariously funny cast make it feel new again, and every scene feels fresh. I rarely find movies about kids to be genuinely funny (they’re usually full of corny-cute gags), but The Kings of Summer has an intelligent, razor-sharp wit and embraces the bizarre with such fearlessness that it had me laughing every step of the way.

What’s impressive about the film’s comedic success is that its stars are relative newcomers to the game, yet deliver their lines with skill beyond their years. This is apparent in scenes where Robinson, the Bueller of the trio, hangs beat for beat, quip for quip with the seasoned Nick Offerman, who plays his wise-ass, bully father. Their scenes are the funniest in the film, and it’s impressive to see such a young talent excel with such maturity. The film is surprisingly gorgeous, with Malick-ian nature shots scattered throughout, which can feel a little out of place at times.

Stay tuned to Way Too Indie for our full review and an interview with the cast.