One of the few complaints lobbed at Richard Linklater‘s 2014 masterpiece Boyhood is that the title Boyhood is presumptuous. The argument is that the movie is not reflective of every young male’s upbringing and that such an all-encompassing title is inappropriate. While I find that argument rather silly (it presumes that Linklater intended his movie to represent the youth of all boys), the truth is that there are in fact many types of adolescence for young men. King Jack, the first feature written and directed by Felix Thompson, follows a weekend in the life of a young teenage boy who has a very different upbringing than that of the twelve years depicted in Boyhood. It likewise paints a compelling, colorful portrait of a troubled young man and the challenges he faces in his community.
Jack (Charlie Plummer) is a young teen who appears to be the definition of a bad apple — he smokes, drinks, makes poor decisions, has to attend summer school because of his poor performance in school, and, worst of all, he is disrespectful to his mother (Erin Davie). Despite his blatant disregard for authority, Jack is unpopular in school — everyone refers to him as “Scab”, a nickname given to him by his older brother Tom (Christian Madsen), and is picked on relentlessly by an older bully named Shane (Danny Flaherty). Though Jack is entirely self-centered, he is forced to spend the weekend hanging out with his younger cousin Ben (Cory Nichols), a shy, chubby kid. Though Jack at first treats Ben like a disease, circumstances between Jack and Shane soon show Jack the importance of family and showing responsibility for one’s own actions.
Thompson does much to portray Jack as arrogant. Jack takes cell phone pics of his scrawny frame while posing shirtless as if he actually had muscles, curses at his mother, acts too cool for school (he’s the type who blames “bad pitching” for why he can’t hit a baseball), and he completely lacks a sense of responsibility. However, Thompson reveals that there are reasons why Jack is such an angry young man. While it doesn’t excuse his behavior, it does explain it — a kid from a broken home who has been bullied all his life is naturally going to lash out at those who continue to bully him. Thompson also does an excellent job of establishing the community where Jack lives as one that breeds idle teenagers who get into trouble. Jack is just the next child in the cycle of bullying that began with Tom, passed on to Shane, and is now centered on Jack. It is clearly a lower middle-class neighborhood where parents are out of the picture during the day, leading to the kids doing just about whatever they want.
King Jack is marked by two strong performances — first and foremost, Plummer as Jack. It would be easy to portray Jack as just a token “bad kid,” but he is instead a layered character who has fears and insecurities. In fact, his tough exterior is a blatant front that most of the other characters see right through. The film’s other great performance is Cory Nichols as Ben. Though Ben initially appears to be sad and shy, as he opens up over the course of the film it is not just funny, it reveals how good of an actor Nichols really is at such a young age. Most of the supporting actors are also strong (and it was great to see Meeko from Gimme the Loot in another film, even briefly) and add authenticity to the world of King Jack.
Though in my opening I compared King Jack to Boyhood, by scope alone that isn’t a fair comparison at all. But King Jack looks at a young man who is probably somewhat familiar to us all in some way. Are there truly bad kids, or just kids in bad situations who have no other options but to lash out? King Jack provides one answer to that question, and it happens to be in the middle of a sweet, funny coming-of-age film that reveals Thompson as a filmmaker who knows how to create intriguing characters faced with complex situations.
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