When Margie Carlin (Marisa Tomei) decides it’s time to date again, it displaces her stay-at-home son Scott (Pete Davidson), still unsure what to make of the emotional scars he’s acquired from losing his father to his job as a firefighter, seventeen years ago. Margie happens to get stuck on Ray Bishop (Bill Burr), another firefighter, and that does not sit well with Scott. The film meanders round Scott’s confused and slacker life, practising tattooing on his backward best friends and smoking a lot of pot, until Margie decides it’s time to kick him out of the house, and force him to fend for himself; it’s from here that Scott begins to learn what it’s like to be responsible.
Directed by Judd Apatow, this is a difficult movie to talk about for what it is. Having looked it up, The King of Staten Island is described as a semi-biographical imagining of how Pete Davidson’s life may have turned out if he hadn’t got into comedy. The opening couple of scenes strongly indicate that Scott is suicidal, and it’s confronting, from a guy I’ve seen fearlessly approach Comedy Central Roasts and renowned for dating Ariana Grande; a powerful and beautiful young lady who seems very well put-together. I’ve seen Davidson satirise losing his father to the tragic circumstances of 9/11 more savagely than anyone else possibly could, so it’s hard to know where the biographical content stops and the reimagining begins. Whatever suffering Davidson and his family have endured from losing a loved one is terrible, and it’s always difficult to see how much pain is really behind a joke. That being said, I don’t think you can imagine an alternative reality and claim it’s your story. Can you? I don’t know, something about it seems off to me. Maybe I’m overplaying the semi-biographical bent of the story; maybe Scott and Davidson share a similar background and that’s it.
Nonetheless, watching The King of Staten Island as the movie it is, I spent the first thirty minutes waiting for it to pick a direction. It’s like the movie took the vibe of Mid90s and plot of, I don’t know, Mr. Woodcock and sucked the life out of both of them. The comedy in this movie is awful, considering the talent in it, even though the movie does lean towards being a drama more often than not. We’ve seen directionless schmuck and comedy work so well together plenty of times before; Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy is a favourite example of mine. The moments with Ray’s kids are endearing, but Scott walking them to school seems to be one of a few ideas that goes nowhere; the suicidal mentality, the job where Scott must fight for his tips as well. Judd Apatow can be the king of dramedy (that’s drama and comedy together, folks), but his bigger hits, like The 40-Year Old Virgin and Trainwreck, know how to have fun over the top of the seriousness. Other attempts like, Funny People and this, put the gravity on a pedestal, and are you surprised when the comedians don’t deliver the best dramas? What makes anyone in this movie the ‘King’ of Staten Island anyway? That’s language and bravado you’d expect from a comedy.
Positively, the movie does a great job at showing Scott to be a sinkhole for everyone else’s happiness. He is glib about his sister needing to worry about him, and turns on any positive idea she has about him doing well for himself. It’s clear Scott doesn’t care about himself, and so it’s hard for him to care about others. I feel like Scott would rather finish Spongebob Squarepants than wish his sister a good time at college because nothing is a big deal for him, more than he’s jealous or hates his sister – that’s depressing, and intelligible characterisation. When the time comes, the movie does pack the emotional punch you’d expect; some might be grateful that the movie doesn’t go for an easy joke at times, and cheapen the end result of Scott realising he can be wiser – there’s a lot of times where the movie forces you to sit in the swamp with Scott, and take it. Davidson’s penny-dropping scene with Tomei near the end is fantastically acted; if only Scott had been more engaging as a character the whole way through. Davidson, Tomei, Burr and Steve Buscemi all turn in great performances, but I think Bel Powley has the most layered character to work with – as Scott’s wannabe girlfriend, Kelsey knows she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but she’s got great self-awareness and a keen sense of where she wants to be. Throw on top of that that Powley is a British actress, putting on her Staten Island accent, and I think she proves very noteworthy.
The King of Staten Island doesn’t do a great lot that hasn’t been done before, only this incarnation comes with Staten Island, firefighters and tattoos. It’s raw, and doesn’t walk you by the hand through the awkward mire of arrested development. I heard Bill Burr in interview talking about how his experience with this film has made him reflect on fixing up his own problems, and I get that too. I think the movie goes to show that a person must output energy every day, whether they direct it or not, so it’s best for yourself, if you direct it. The King of Staten Island is not uplifting, nor does it aim to shake you straight, but it makes you want to do better, and I think that’s the intention of the film. That’s got to count for something.
3.0
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