Jeri Jacquin

Currently on Bluray, DVD and Digital from writer/director Judd Apatow and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment comes the story when all you have is being THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND.

Scott Carlin (Pete Davison) is a twenty-four-year-old high school dropout, living at home, hanging with friends and watching everyone else work millennial. At home is Mom Margie (Marisa Tomei) and soon to be college bound sister Claire (Maude Apatow). Scott’s father, a firefighter, died when he was a younger kid and it’s still something he deals with.

Hanging out with friends Oscar (Ricky Velez), Richie (Lou Wilson) and Igor (Moises Arias) smoking pot and drinking beer, he meets Harold (Luke Blumm) and offers him a tattoo. Of course, this goes haywire and the kids father Ray (Bill Burr) comes banging on the door. After an argument about how it’s all going to get fix, imagine Scott’s surprise when he discovers that Margie and Ray are hanging out together – like seriously.

Ray tries to find a middle ground with Scott to motivate him to do something with his life and even gets Margie in on the intervention that pushes him to walk Harold to school as a way of “helping”. When it is put to Scott that he needs to get his life started and find a place to live, he goes to sister Claire at college for help. Claire is not having any of Scott’s nonsense believing that it’s time for their mother to have love in her life after their father has been gone for so many years.

In desperation, Scott turns to Ray’s ex-wife Joy (Lynne Loplitz) to get the dirt on him. Well, Joy has no problem letting him know a few things about her ex, especially since she can’t see why Margie is with him. Immediately Scott runs home to tell Mama and when confronted by Ray, a brawl breaks out and Margie sends them both away. First Scott turns to his friends and a crazy idea they had turns bad quickly.

Running to the only girl who would have him, Kelsey (Bel Powley) catches on quickly enough that he only wanted to be with her to have a place to stay. Striking out everywhere, he has no choice but go to Ray at the firehouse. Almost immediately Ray would rather throw the kid in the street but knows it would only anger Margie more. Scott meets the other firemen Thompson (Mike Vecchione), Lockwood (Domenick Lombardozzi), Savage (Jimmy Tatro) and Captain Papa (Steve Muscemi).

Scott starts to see a change as he learns more about his father and gives his mother a little bit of a break but it’s time for him to choose a direction that will make him happy and give everyone around him a break!

Davidson as Scott is as hyperactive as they come and proves it not stopping for a moment throughout the film. When he isn’t being sarcastic to his mother and sister or isn’t hanging out with his friends doing nothing with his life or even giving Ray a hard time, he could make a good boyfriend. Davidson is hilarious, mean spirited, quick mouthed and a nice guy all rolled into one. That makes for getting whiplash keeping up with his moods.

Tomei as Margie is a Mom who has put up with a lot from her son, perhaps because she felt a twang of guilt that her husband died. Even though Scott seems to be the one dragging it out emotionally, Margie has also placed her own life on hold waiting for…well…something. Tomei cracked me up every which way dealing with the men in her life. Apatow as Claire has had about enough of her brother and is happy to run away to college thinking that distance will stop the madness – well, Scott knows the road there!

Burr as Ray jumps into Margie and Scott’s life with the quickness that knocks Scott completely on his emotional ass. Wanting a life with Margie, he takes a few liberties with telling them both how to live their lives when he should be checking his own children first. Powley as Kelsey can’t stop having feelings for Scott, no matter how crazy he makes her, she still cares about him.

Velez, Wilson, and Arias are Scott’s friends and they have the very same life he does (except one has a car) and they are looking for a big pay day for a tattoo-restaurant. When it comes time to put a plan into action, nothing goes as planned and Scott’s life is a sliver away from prison.

Other cast include Pamela Adion as Gina, Kevin Corrigan as Joe, Derek Gaines as Zoots, Pauline Chalamet as Joanne, Colton Merrill as Scooter and Carly Aquilino as Tara.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us to all experience and re-experience in our own home theaters. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

Packed with Hilarious Bonus Features: Alternate Ending Which Didn’t Work!, Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel, Line-O-Rama, The Kid From Staten Island, Judd Apatow’s Production Dares, You’re Not My Dad, Marge Knows Best, Friends with Benefits, Sibling Rivalry, Best Friends, Scott Davidson Tribute and More.

THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND is a combination of life, the perils of a millennial dealing with death and his own neurosis, a mom who gives up her life when she shouldn’t have, a sister who feels responsible for a brother who won’t take responsibility for anything and a constant ‘woe is me’ coming out of a grownups mouth. If that seems like a lot, it is but that is not all. The film takes the viewer on a roller coaster ride of every range of human emotion on steroids.

Of course, that should not be anything new as Apatow likes to take stories to a whole other level. This film plays along with his consistent was of making us all laugh, think about life and cut each other a little bit of slack in the midst of madness. I do not mind that so much, especially now.

In the end – it is time to grow up even for him!

Comments

comments