First, a small order of business: fewer than two months ago, I mocked a teen by the name of Moises Arias for his work in Ender’s Game as spiteful squadron leader to the film’s hero. I called the actor, “an ill-favored hook-nosed sub-five-foot Napoleon,” and intimated that his only future work would be in Middle Earth and finished with setting odds at 5,000 to 1 against that I’d repeat his name again outside context of Ender’s Game.
Moises Arias, as the peculiar third wheel in a friendship of two, was fantastic in The Kings of Summer. I do like being wrong; it’s strange, but I do. I apologize, Moises, and I hope to see more of you in the future.
Joe (Nick Robinson) hates his home life. You would, too, if your father were Nick Offerman. I know, we love Nick on Parks & Rec, but we love him at arm’s length. If you actually had a father this intractable or emotionally absent, you’d have issues, too … especially were he your lone remaining parent. With sis at college and mom deceased, it’s just Joe and dad and Joe has had enough. His best friend Patrick (Gabriel Basso) has also had enough of his own parents. Pat-rents aren’t intractable, just sort of goofy. Neither of these mid-teens has it bad. It’s very important to point that out. They live in middle-America; they’re middle class; they go to high school; they can’t drive. Their parents are neither abusive nor necessarily unfair. And yet, there’s still a malaise distinctly associated with the male who is no longer a boy, but not yet a man. And when you see the peer-level girl you’re hot for (Erin Moriarty) going for a douchebag with a goatee and a pickup truck, well, life just ain’t fair.
Joe breaks curfew to catch a kegger. He’s about to have a beer when Goatee tells him, “keg’s almost tapped; no beer for freshman.” Joe probably should have been happy he was invited at all. An unstable neighbor scatters the kids with a gunshot and in the ensuing chaos, Joe and Biaggio 
(Arias) get lost and subsequently find paradise. And suddenly, go-nowhere Joe knows exactly how he’s spending the summer. Joe collects Patrick and the two build a shanty in the woods to live, alone, without telling anybody.
Coming of age films really don’t need much. Teen boys tend to create conflict just by going through routine days. There are many questions of where and how and what, but it doesn’t matter a whole lot. Joe and Patrick have decided for the immediate future they don’t need parents. I applaud their take on reality. Biaggio comes along, too. Nobody knows why exactly, but the audience knows the film needs comic relief and Biaggio is just full of it. As the boys hunt for food, Joe — while wielding a broadsword! — comments on the manliness of their adventures and asks for reflection:
Biaggio: “I don’t really see myself of having a gender. Is that a problem?”
Joe: “It’s not great.”
It’s hard to come of age as a man when you don’t have gender. Speaking of which, The Kings of Summer is pretty much fun ‘n’ games until Kelly (Moriarty) comes back into the mix. I’m pleased not to feel cheated by either the humor or the drama here. This and The Way Way Back would make my favorite double of the year for all reflective males under seventeen.
Joe the dreamer sees free
As personal necessity
Time to look past
Growing up so fast?
Not all it’s cracked up to be
Rated R, 95 Minutes
D: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
W: Chris Galletta
Genre: Buddies coming of age
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Anybody who ever fantasized about running away from home.
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Dad the dictator
