Mark Reviews Movies: THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 11, 2020

Like his approach to comedy or not, there's no denying that Pete Davidson is an honest and thoughtful comedian, especially when it comes to himself. The "Saturday Night Live" cast member has risen to some prominence on account of his self-reflective and usually self-deprecating brand of humor, making jokes about his private life and living with mental health issues. Some of the best and most admirable comedy comes from very personal places.

It's important to note some of this about the actor, if only because The King of Staten Island, which Davidson co-wrote, is obviously a personal movie. It closes with a dedication to Davidson's father, a firefighter who died during the rescue efforts of September 11, 2001. The movie itself is about a 24-year-old man, played by Davidson (who's 26), whose father was a firefighter killed in the line of duty (during a hotel fire, not 9/11).

The character has his own mental health issues, lives with his mother, and smokes marijuana whenever he can. If one has seen any of Davidson's comedy bits, it should be obvious that the actor and this character are tightly knit. As for the specifics of the movie's story, we'll let Davidson comment on that at a later date on stage or television.

One does wonder, though. The movie, directed and co-written by Judd Apatow, feels as authentic when its characters are simply hanging out as it does when the material directly addresses the lasting trauma suffered by Davidson's character.

There's a lot of hanging out here, especially in the first act, as we're introduced to Scott (Davidson, whose character is named after the actor's late father), his family, and his friends. In the final act, Scott allows himself to consider his father as full person—not just the hero the son was always told his old man was, not just a photo in a shrine of the family home, not just the prankster and partier that the father's fellow firefighters admired too much to dislike.

All of this material works and works with a fine mixture of humor, character, and pointed emotional honesty. There's a lot more story here, though, that doesn't match the sense of authenticity that opens and closes the movie.

At first, we're just spending time with Scott. He lives with his mother Margie (Marisa Tomei, whose performance gives a seemingly perfunctory character an inner life and arc) and younger sister Claire (Maude Apatow, the director's daughter, who's quite good at communicating equal frustration and love for Scott).

Claire is heading to college, and while Scott says he'll be there for his mother, he just continues smoking weed and selling drugs in the basement with his longtime friends. The friends are amusing, although none more so than Igor (Moises Arias), their empathetic punching bag. Scott is also having a fling with Kelsey (Bel Powley), a friend since childhood, who wants even a flicker of commitment from him.

Scott, of course, isn't having any of that. The screenplay (also co-written, in addition to the star and director, by Dave Sirus) clearly understands and subtly helps us to comprehend how Scott keeps at a certain distance from emotional attachments. He's capable of them, obviously, but every one of his relationships has a wall around it.

It's a defensive measure, basically, maintained by means of humor (He has a habit of making sure people say they love each other, half joking that, that way, the person won't regret it if the other dies tomorrow), anger, and detachment. The screenwriters and, in his performance, Davidson don't attempt to excuse or justify some of the character's less appealing words and behavior on account of this characteristic, but the filmmakers certainly give us a foundation for sympathizing with his pain.

The lengthy middle section of the story puts those less appealing elements of Scott's personality at the fore. Margie meets Ray (Bill Burr), a firefighter (whose young son Scott tried to tattoo), and the two hit it off quickly. Upon hearing that his mother is dating, Scott jokes about her having a lot sex, but when he learns that she's found something—and with another firefighter, no less—more serious, he makes it his mission to disrupt the couple's relationship.

By that point, we get his motive—trying to protect his mother from the possibility of more pain. The movie, though, seems incapable of focusing on any given story thread for too long, so in addition to Scott's scheming against Ray, we also get more with his friends (who are planning to rob a pharmacy), how Scott connects to Ray's kids, Scott's attempt to become a tattoo artist, a string of ups and downs with Kelsey, and even more. Too much of it feels like inventing opportunities for gags or simply reiterating Scott's self-sabotaging ways.

That's unfortunate, because the movie eventually puts Scott face-to-face with other firefighters, who take him in when no one else will. There's a real sense of Scott reconciling himself with what he lost and realizing what he might be missing, but even in this section, The King of Staten Island becomes distracted by random gags and some unnecessary story beats. There's too much of what doesn't matter and not enough of what really does.

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