Pete Davidson
It's sound advice. You've embarked on a personal project that's daunting because it involves trying something new and challenging, so you surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Experts in their craft. Pros. And you commit yourself, body and soul, to making sure the end product is every bit as truthful and nakedly honest as you intend. After all, it's coming straight from the heart.
Marisa Tomei, Pete Davidson
"The King of Staten Island," director Judd Apatow's portrait of actor and comedian Pete Davidson before he rose to fame as part of the current cast of "Saturday Night Live," has all the pieces in place for a compelling semi-autobiographical tale: struggles with mental illness, a dysfunctional family wracked by grief, and the stultifying anomie of living in New York City's "forgotten borough." The Universal release, co-written by its star, follows the "8 Mile" template of unvarnished self-examination, only played for laughs as well as pathos. Its supporting cast includes Marisa Tomei, Steve Buscemi, Kevin Corrigan and the captivating Bel Powley. It was shot by Robert Elswit, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of "Boogie Nights," "There Will Be Blood" and "Nightcrawler."
And yet, despite the pedigree in front of and behind the lens, the film is a slog, a moody, shapeless blob of a dramedy that squanders what little goodwill it engenders, mostly due to the sullen tattooed void at the center.
Pete Davidson, Bill Burr
Davidson's on-screen alter ego, Scott Carlin, whiles away the hours in a cannabis-infused haze with his fellow slacker buddies, Oscar (Ricky Velez), Igor (Moises Arias) and Richie (Lou Wilson). Occasionally he has sex with longtime friend Kelsey (Powley), who's hoping he'll take the hint that she'd like to nudge things toward, if not quite a relationship, then at least dating. But he's too ensconced in a bubble forged by video games, pop culture references, antidepressants, a snide indifference to the people in his life and the unresolved fallout of having lost his father, a firefighter, at age 7. There's no getting in there.
Apatow makes it even harder for us to become invested in his singularly unappealing protagonist by depriving the film of something resembling narrative momentum. The film's first third is especially hard to navigate, lurching as it does from one elongated scene to the next. The filmmaker tries to make something stick story-wise concerning Scott's sister Claire (Maude Apatow) going away to college, a seismic event for their mom, Margie (Tomei), who works as an emergency room nurse. Now that she's left with an uncommunicative underachiever as her only companion at home, what's a shell-shocked widow to do?
Pete Davidson, Steve Buscemi
A cutesy series of events brings the mercurial, mustached Ray Bishop (Bill Burr) into their lives. The presence of a new man as a potential suitor for Margie might inject some content to an otherwise slim, padded-out narrative, but the familiar fissures the character's arrival causes only lay bare "Staten Island's" most gnawing issue: that Davidson is by far the least interesting part in his own story. In addition to the broken-record structure of his character's journey, his performance, which can charitably be called uneven, careens from serviceable to cringe-inducing to curiously nondescript. Rinse. Repeat. His screen presence sometimes recalls the young Adam Sandler but without his impish glee.
The film should have zeroed in like a laser on Scott's aspiration to become a tattoo artist, a dream dashed by his own lack of resolve and the dearth of options available to him. A scene where he goes to a tattoo parlor to inquire about an apprenticeship sticks out because it has the focus and purpose that is otherwise missing in action.
Bel Powley, Pete Davidson
It doesn't help that Apatow, who, besides helming a couple of documentaries in recent years, hasn't directed a theatrical feature since the (mostly winning) "Trainwreck" in 2015, and it shows.
The "Knocked Up" and "40-Year-Old Virgin" director is rusty, and the loose, rambling structure of the screenplay he co-wrote with Davidson and Dave Sirus allows him to indulge in his worst impulses. His scenes are so drawn out, they feel like a cross between an actor's exercise and a half-baked comedy skit, and there's a lack of interest in the visual aspects of the medium, a trait that Elswit is, sadly, unable to overcome, despite his widescreen compositions. Apatow also takes an ill-advised stab at naturalism, much like Curtis Hanson did (with better results) telling Eminem's story in "8 Mile," but the more he strives to achieve kitchen sink realism, the less authentic the movie feels. The strain shows.
"Staten Island" hits rock bottom with a moronic subplot involving a criminal venture by Scott's buddies that tests their friendship, but even then, Apatow can't even find a way to have this story wrinkle pay off. But just when you're ready to throw in the towel, if you haven't already, the film becomes reasonably engaging during its final third, as it follows Scott's tentative bond with Papa (Buscemi, dependably solid) and other local first responders who knew his father. This section is about as episodic as the rest of the film, but here's where Davidson's generosity of spirit shines brightest, as he pays tribute to the men and women who put their lives on the line on a daily basis to help others.
Moises Arias, Ricky Velez, Pete Davidson
Yet, the feel-good reprieve comes way too late in the game. Saddled with a running time of 136 minutes, the film reaches a genial conclusion that nevertheless amounts to a slap in the face, coming as it does at the tail end of an exhausting, egregriously overlong misfire that (let me check my notes) took three editors to assemble. We're ostensibly paying to see Davidson confront his demons, but "The King of Staten Island" repeatedly mistakes shrill head-butting and facile quips for genuine introspection.
"The King of Staten Island" is now available On Demand through various streaming services, including Amazon Prime. Like many high-profile studio releases originally slated for a theatrical release, it's yet another film dealing with the ongoing fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
