Review: King of California

To get passed all the credits with minimal effort, here you go:

IMDB

Now, onward to the shiny new blog post!  For those that are stricken with pure boredom, and a slight case of that dangerous impulse called curiosity, I hope my opinion spices up your day.

    I first saw a trailer for this film on the dvd for Paris, je t'aime, another excellent independent film.  I saw a few good trailers actually, but this one stuck in my mind and when I noticed it was released on the 29th, I immediately went out to rent it from Red Box.  As I suspected, King of California lived up to the hype I had applied towards it, and if I had a top 10 list, this would be on it somewhere.  The plot is truly inspiring and deep; I found myself at times envious of the character of Charlie (Michael Douglas) and I greatly appreciated his perspective of the world.

Now, I want to clarify something regarding the given genre of King of California.  The film is generally labeled as a comedy, but like so many other independent films, there is a lot more to the story than a label.  I've noticed independent films generally have more than two dimensions to the characters and much more thought provoking story arcs than your typical Hollywood produced films.  King of California is no exception; here is a film that, while it is most certainly a comedy, also tells a story of family, freedom, and hope.

King of California  takes place primarily in a small coastal town, populated by a few extraordinarily lucky individuals, as well as plenty of very eccentric employees of the local plot device called Costco.  For Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood), a 16 year old  drop out, life has been difficult.  Her mother abandoned her at a young age and her father was put into a mental institution, leaving her to fend for herself.  She eventually is forced to drop out of school and enter the work force via the undeniably monotonous work of McDonalds.  Life is peaceful though, despite how hard she works to keep it that way, and it seems like everything is going as smoothly as it could.  That is, until her father, Charlie, is released from the mental institution.  At that point, the film starts to pick up, and we learn more about the character of Charlie through his own, post-institution opinions and a few flashbacks.  Charlie enlightens Miranda with his plans to find the treasure of a long dead Spanish explorer, and after much conflict she eventually agrees to help him find it.  This quest brings the father-daughter pair closer together; a story of family, with a tinge of truly unique comedy.

I won't delve into the plot more than I have already, but I do want to say that I'm not usually a big fan of comedies.  The typical comedy is usually very much lacking in rich plot, deep characters, and noticeable theme.  That's not to say that I don't thoroughly enjoy comedies, I love Air Plane and Anchorman, but these are certainly not masterful works of art, they're just really funny.  Addressing this point, a recent film comes to mind, that is quite similar to King of California in its execution: Stranger Than Fiction.  I watched a video review of this movie and the reviewer called it a "dramady" as in a drama/comedy movie; I'd say that's an accurate label for it, and King of California.  I like dramadies more so that comedies I guess.

I'm giving King of California 10/10, or 5/5, or 4 stars, you know, however you want to interpret a maximum rating.

GO WATCH IT NOW PLEASE!