★★★☆☆
26 December 2017
A movie review of KINGS. |
“It hurts everywhere,” Obie (Daniel Craig)
A film about the 1992 Los Angeles riots, starring Halle Berry and Daniel Craig, and from the director of MUSTANG, on paper appeared to be a doozy. The end result is disappointing. KINGS feels especially slight in comparison to this year’s DETROIT from Kathryn Bigelow. Opting to witness the social upheaval from the perspective of a sweet family makes the message more palatable, but also dilutes it. Contrast Bigelow’s film, which is almost unwatchable in places it is so disturbing. Surface softening the approach perhaps reaches a wider audience. True skill is if filmmakers can satisfactorily wrap an iron fist in a velvet glove. KINGS tries but does not succeed.
To shake things up, alien invasion movies have at times focused on individuals caught up in the cataclysmic melee rather than talking government heads seeing the bigger picture. CLOVERFIELD and WAR OF THE WORLDS are in response to the ilk of INDEPENDENCE DAY. By not having the citywide anarchy from the view of the powerful, KINGS does something similar to the aforementioned genre.
A film about the 1992 Los Angeles riots, starring Halle Berry and Daniel Craig, and from the director of MUSTANG, on paper appeared to be a doozy. The end result is disappointing. KINGS feels especially slight in comparison to this year’s DETROIT from Kathryn Bigelow. Opting to witness the social upheaval from the perspective of a sweet family makes the message more palatable, but also dilutes it. Contrast Bigelow’s film, which is almost unwatchable in places it is so disturbing. Surface softening the approach perhaps reaches a wider audience. True skill is if filmmakers can satisfactorily wrap an iron fist in a velvet glove. KINGS tries but does not succeed.
To shake things up, alien invasion movies have at times focused on individuals caught up in the cataclysmic melee rather than talking government heads seeing the bigger picture. CLOVERFIELD and WAR OF THE WORLDS are in response to the ilk of INDEPENDENCE DAY. By not having the citywide anarchy from the view of the powerful, KINGS does something similar to the aforementioned genre.
The title refers to two Kings: Rodney King and Martin Luther King Jr. The latter’s presence looms large over the film. The former was brutally beaten by officers in the Los Angeles Police Department. Caught on camera, they should have been quickly convicted. Instead, they were acquitted. A powder keg of years of racial discrimination is lit. The metropolis erupts in venom at the injustice.
The film opens with a black girl being shot in the back and killed in a convenience store by the owner. It was recommended that the perpetrator get 16 years in prison. The judge merely gave her probation and a fine. The scene is based on a true story. The context for what is to come. While set in the early 1990s, KINGS is obviously still dishearteningly relevant.
Millie (Halle Berry) is an angelic foster mother, housing over half a dozen children. Providing a roof and a lot of love, she is the sole caregiver. One worries for Millie’s safety. She is the only bulwark for these vulnerable young people against a cruel world. (Her character harkens back to that of Wallace (Michael B. Jordan) in THE WIRE.) The family is scattered during the riots. Millie enlists the help of cantankerous neighbour, Obie (Daniel Craig).
Two subplots emerge:
- An unsatisfying strand involving the eldest teenage son and a love triangle, and
- A quirky romance with Obie. The female gaze of lust is affectionately inserted. (A former Bond girl has a sexy dream about the current 007.)
Frustratingly, the raison d’être of KINGS takes a back seat.
After the searing MUSTANG, I hoped for more from writer-director Deniz Gamze Ergüven.