When I was visiting New York City, I was told repeatedly by residents that I didn’t need to visit Staten Island: just take the ferry, see the Statue of Liberty, then get right back on the ferry back to Manhattan. I know little about what happens on the Island other than what the Jersey Shore has taught me. So props to Pete Davidson and Judd Apatow, for shining a light on a tourist neglected part of the New York city experience.
Davidson plays Scott, a lost twentysomething who smokes extensive amounts of weed to distract himself from the tragic events that took his father from his life. Scott’s sister Claire (Maude Apatow) is going off to college, leaving Scott at home with his mom Margie (Marisa Tomei), also still in grief from the loss of her husband. With more time on her hands, Margie starts a relationship with Ray (Bill Burr), a fireman like her husband, yet another life wrinkle Scott has to figure out even though he seems incapable of doing so.
Judd Apatow’s comedic hand is best served for frat boys, revolving around sex talk or shooting the sh*t with your bros. Society has evolved past this dude centric comedy universe, making The King of Staten Island’s humor more of a mixed bag, since the characters in the movie aren’t all Pete Davidson and his buddies. When the jokes revolve around the bong in the center of the room, the movie generates its biggest laughs. The surprise winner of this is Pamela Adlon, Ray’s ex-wife, just firing fastballs of hate about her husband to Scott, with hilarious consequences. Apatow needs to work on substance free humor a little more: the most confusing scene for example is a robbery that’s trying to be funny instead of actually being funny or just straight up being scary, because you know, it’s a robbery. We’ll see if Apatow can change with the times, or if like Scott, he’s stuck in a comedic arrested development.
I hope Apatow grows comedically, because he’s shown here he’s grown dramatically. The King of Staten Island works better as a drama about a traumatized person trying to open up to the world. Apatow smartly parallel’s Scott’s growth with his mom’s, using the uber talented Marisa Tomei (sporting that welcome My Cousin Vinny accent) to show Scott a path forward for how to escape the sadness in his own heart: by opening up to the people who care about you. Bill Burr’s Ray also helps Scott out as well, not just by relaying stories about his father to Scott, but also by showing Scott how to cope with loss and grow and move on from it. Scott then takes those lessons and applies it to his own on/off relationship with Kelsey, the girl he likes that also likes him back. The scenes between Davidson and Bel Powley as Kelsey are really interesting and well constructed, using Powley’s specific Staten Island charm/emotional empathy to help Scott not to date her, but to see some good inside himself, like a great person does. Anchoring most of these scenes is Pete Davidson, a steadying force of crippling anxiety. Apatow mines a really good performance from the comedian, giving hope that his career can be more than just Weekend Update bits and tabloid shenanigans.
The King of Staten Island isn’t Apatow’s best movie, but it may be an important one as the talented director transitions into a new phase of his career. Like Scott, we have to stop expecting comedic greatness everytime Apatow makes something and start growing up and seeing what other interesting things he can do behind the camera. We’re about 5 years away from his nepotistic take on his own life, starring Leslie Mann and Maude Apatow, his wife and daughter. Now THAT’s gonna be something weird…