Previously titled Toy’s House, The Kings of Summer premiered at Sundance at the start of the year, and earned brilliant reviews as a wonderful coming-of-age comedy, powered by terrific performances from its young leading cast.
The film crossed the Atlantic for Sundance London last month (where I saw and loved it), and you can read our review here. Having spent the past few months on the festival circuit, it’s about to be released in the US next weekend, and Funny or Die have debuted a very red-band new trailer for the film.
Premiering to rave reviews at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, THE KINGS OF SUMMER is a unique coming-of-age comedy about three teenage friends — Joe (Nick Robinson), Patrick (Gabriel Basso) and the eccentric and unpredictable Biaggio (Moises Arias) – who, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land. Free from their parents’ rules, their idyllic summer quickly becomes a test of friendship as each boy learns to appreciate the fact that family – whether it is the one you’re born into or the one you create — is something you can’t run away from.
Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, and Moises Arias are absolutely terrific as the young leading trio, with Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Megan Mullaly, Erin Moriarty, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Marc Evan Jackson all brilliantly completing the cast.
Jordan Vogt-Roberts directs from a script by Chris Galletta, with the two making their feature debuts with the film.
Alongside the terrific leading young kids, Nick Offerman and Alison Brie are absolutely as Joe’s father and sister, and you get a great little snippet of that in the trailer below in the Monopoly scene. Megan Mullaly and Marc Evan Jackson are equally hilarious as Patrick’s parents, and you can’t help but love their reaction to their son’s reasonably inoffensive response to his mother’s observation. Just excellent.
The Kings of Summer will be heading into US theatres next Friday, May 31st. Still no word yet on a UK release date, but I’m hoping it will be reaching our shores a little later in the year, even if it’s not in time for summer.
