'The Kings of Summer' sinks into a cliché coming-of-age story

'The Kings of Summer' was a Sundance favorite but is an all-too-familiar story. 'The Kings of Summer' stars Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, and Moises Arias.

|
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
'The Kings of Summer' stars actor Gabriel Basso.

Coming-of-age movies are not my favorite genre, mainly because most are retreads made by filmmakers who came of age all too long ago. Sundance fave “The Kings of Summer,” directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and written by Chris Galletta, has some vitality, but it sinks into cliché just the same.

Three teenage friends, played by Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, and Moises Arias, decide to declare their independence and build a summer house in the woods and live off the land. Thoreau would not have been very impressed, I think. Grade: C+ (Rated R for language and some teen drinking.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'The Kings of Summer' sinks into a cliché coming-of-age story
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2013/0531/The-Kings-of-Summer-sinks-into-a-cliche-coming-of-age-story
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe