Kings movie review & film summary (2018)
In fact, I don’t think Ergüven is interested in exploring the complexities that led to Los Angeles erupting on April 29, 1992. Instead, using recreations and actual real-life footage, she presents scene after scene of violence with little context. Her paper-thin Black characters are seen murdering, stealing, setting fires and being killed, yet not once does Ergüven interrogate the underlying anger at injustice that motivated them. They’re just pixels in a video game of destruction. Only Craig’s Obie Hardison is allowed moments of conflicted emotion and heroism. To quote the film’s dialogue, he’s “the only White person in the neighborhood.”
Craig’s Obie is the drunk who lives opposite Berry’s Millie. Obie has a penchant for shooting a shotgun out of his window when the neighborhood gets too rowdy and loud. He also throws large appliances like washing machines off his balcony when he’s really pissed off. How an Englishman or an Aussie or whatever Obie’s supposed to be wound up in South Central is never explained. That story would have been fascinating, not to mention useful, because Obie’s being positioned as a savior of sorts. Craig is currently the latest iteration of James Bond, but “Kings” sees him as more of a MacGyver clone. Late in the film, he manages to escape from danger using a rope made out of two pairs of denim pants and a shoe.
Obie hates kids. His potential love interest, Millie has more children than the Old Lady Who Lives In a Shoe. But “Kings” never specifies how many of them are hers and how many are wards that she took in out of the goodness of her own heart. Hell, some of these kids don’t even have names, but it’s clear that Millie loves them all unconditionally. In addition to keeping her charges out of trouble, Millie makes Bundt cakes as a means of generating income. Every day is a struggle that would wear down the strongest of women, yet not once does Millie look anything less than gorgeous. Even at her most stressed out, Millie’s elegant coif never stops bouncing and behaving.
