Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The wonderful coming of age film KING JACK opens Friday

I saw KING JACK at Tribeca in 2015 and I fully expected the film to blow up all over the place. I expected it to cut through the festivals and emerge last fall as an Oscar contender. I thought it was going to be one of the films that we all got sick of haring about.

What happened instead was that the film fell off the face of the earth and is getting pushed into theaters this Friday. I'm guessing there will be a VOD release as well but I'm not sure. That is not a flippant remark, rather it's the result of just discovering via IMDB that the film was being release this week.

Weeee! Isn't film promotion wonderful? To be certain the fact that they got the film on the front page of IMDB says something, but for the rest of us who fell in love with the film over a year ago there has been no word. This isn't to bemoan not being on the right list to be told of the release, this getting pissed that I can't start beating the drum until three days before the release. Had I known I might have done more.

For the moment the best I can do is tell you you must make an effort to see this when it opens Friday. I can argue until I'm blue in the face, but the best thing I can do is have you read my original Tribeca review which I'm reposting below. The review says everything you need to know except once you see the film you will thank me- and you too will wonder if Oscar will come calling.

I don't think I've seen many films as emotionally truthful as KING JACK. Say what you will about the details of the plot, the pure emotion of being an teen and an underdog made a whole theater full of critics ponder how in the world they could ever write about the film.

Teenager Jack is just trying to get by. Bullied and abused by the kids around him, and even his older brother, Jack falls in and out of trouble. When Jacks younger cousin Ben comes to stay for a couple of days, Ben's mom had a psychotic episode, Jack finds that he is now entrusted with keeping an eye on someone.

This film kicks ass and takes names. Its a film that resonates with a truth that if it isn't real in a reality sort of way, then it's certainly real in a nostalgic way. Everyone will see themselves in Jack even to the point they will have to look away. I saw whole sections of my childhood flashing before my eyes, both on screen and in my imagination. It was tough, but well worth it.

I really don't know what to say other than I loved this film a great deal. Its a film that talks to you, whoever you are, on your own terms. The filmmakers know of what they speak and it's all on the screen. In truth KING JACK is the real BOYHOOD. There is more truth, more emotion, more reality than Richard Linkletter’s film

The truthfulness is so strong and so powerful that you easily forgive some of the odd twists and turns, especially a villain who is so nasty that you really can't imagine him not being in prison. Then again I'm not sure that the film would resonate as well as it does if it wasn't bumpy and didn't have monster for Jack to struggle against.

Go see this film and be moved to actually feel something.

Something tells me that this film is going to have a long life after Tribeca. A must see.

1 comment:

  1. oh cool! I loved this film too when I saw it at tribeca last year. Happy to hear that it's finally coming out!

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