FILM

Smoke Weed to Slow Down Time

“The King of Staten Island” is the life and philosophy of Pete Davidson.

Judd Apatow always makes promising movies. They are never able to fulfill those promises — apart from The 40 years old virgin -, but that’s ok, I forgive him. I do because he’s a funny guy who writes funny screenplays when he doesn’t try too hard. He is a bit old to write the same sort of vulgar but quotable jokes mainly for men from 15 to 30, but as long as he’s able to laugh along with his targeted audience, it’s all fine and dandy.

“The King of Staten Island” is not entirely his 6th “child”, though. The film is loosely based on the life events and struggles of comedian, Pete Davidson. The guy who dated Ariana Grande and Kate Beckinsale with a bunch of questionable and goofy tattoos all over his body. This is the point where I have to admit that I haven’t heard of him at all until his Netflix comedy special came out this year (Saturday Night Live is not my cup of tea).

“The King of Staten Island is essentially a coming-of-age story about Davidson’s pre-fame years.” — Q.V. Hough, Screenrant

Apatow is 52 now, and this is his 3rd attempt to try and weigh in heavier on the side of the drama than the comedy. The first one was Funny People back in 2009 (the second one not even worth mentioning), and I’m still angry at him for that. Not because it’s a bad movie, but it had the potential for being something meaningful like a Noah Baumbach feature. I guess Apatow was never that ambitious as a filmmaker.

The movie starts off boldly with Davidson driving on the highway stoned, listening to deafening rap music, and almost causing an accident. We’d think that this time there will be actual stakes in the film, but we’d be wrong pretty early. In the next scene, the offbeat jokes are waiting to be cracked.

Scott (Pete Davidson) is 24 years old, lives with his mom, smokes a lot of weed, and casually hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley). According to him, he smokes weed to slow down time because, in today’s world, it’s passing by too quickly. Scott also has ADD, Crohn disease, and a fireman Dad who died while trying to save people from a burning hotel. He was 7 when it happened. But he’s cool with it by now. Not “cool” cool with it, but, you know, he’s not showing it, being 24 and all. He wants to be a tattoo artist, but hanging out with his buddies and smoking weed while watching old horror films is more likely a priority for him.

“Claire: You know, you got to get your sh*t together. Time is passing by very quickly.

Scott: That’s why I smoke weed all the time, okay? It slows it all down.” — The King of Staten Island

He claims that he has no one to practice his skills on. Like tattoo artists can’t draw on paper and shit because… who knows why? So when he’s about to tattoo an innocent 12-year-old kid, who stumbles upon him and his gang by the beach, the boy runs away, and not long after, his dad shows up at Scott’s doorstep to kick his ass. He ends up dating his mom instead. I know, twists.

From that point forward, we are drifting away without a structured plot, but that’s not an attribute we look for in an Apatow feature, anyway.

We’re here for the raunchy one-liners and the situational comedy, which still works pretty well. Apatow hasn’t lost his touch to create comical situations in which he lets his actors break loose and improvise. The talented cast welcomes every opportunity to create an authentic and natural vibe that comes through the screen.

We watch Scott learn responsibility, experience hard work, and open up about his deceased father while he gets accepted by a bunch of middle-aged firemen. Davidson basically plays himself, and comes off as an immature but likable weirdo, which he is, and makes the movie fun and entertaining.

“The movie is like my love letter to my mom and trying to end that part of my life. I feel like we finally got to a place where we could finally let go a little bit.”- Pete Davidson

There are no big life lessons here, just a guy from Staten Island, who struggles with mental demons, grief, and a seemingly dead-end life, but he manages to find a way out and starts building a life that worth living despite its adversities.

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