The Kings of Summer
2013 · Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Original language: English
- comedy
- drama
The story
Three restless teenagers run away to the woods for the summer, determined to escape their parents and live by their own rules. In a hidden clearing, they build a makeshift house and attempt to create an independent life, testing their friendship, freedom, and the challenges of living off the land.
What it’s like
Sunlit green woods and warm golden-hour haze, with a handheld, loose-limbed camera that stays close to three boys as they hammer together a wobbly plywood shelter and wander through tall grass. The palette is summer-saturated: dusty yellows, leafy greens, the bright blue of a cloudless sky, with suburban interiors shot in flatter, cooler light for contrast. The score leans on bouncy acoustic guitar and warm indie pop, and the soundscape is full of cicadas, crackling campfires and creek water. Pacing is loose and episodic, with comic set-pieces that break into quieter stretches of boys lying in the grass talking. Tone is goofy, affectionate and bittersweet, a coming-of-age comedy about the pull between wanting total independence and missing home. The arcs follow friendships that strain under their own bravado, with a lonely, overbearing parent in the background. Intensity is low: some profanity, teen drinking and slapstick mishaps, but no real violence and little peril. It suits a lazy summer afternoon, a comfort watch with friends, or a loose Saturday night. It is for people who want warm, funny, sun-soaked nostalgia for being sixteen.
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