Trivialising a sensitive subject
have both emerged like dripping sex deities from the ocean in different James Bond films.
Millie (Berry) is a foster mother, single-handedly raising eight at-risk children of various ages and ethnicities.
She has fabulous hair, laced with divine blonde tendrils, and a rocking swimsuit bod.
Her neighbour Obie (Craig) is the semi-reclusive who’s so smoking hot that when Millie finally gets a close encounter, it triggers a risible erotic dream that seems dropped in from another film.
The movie-ish conception of these two central characters undermines the seriousness that writer-director Ergüven attempts to bring to the violence that ripped through Los Angeles in the wake of the not-guilty verdict for the four white LAPD officers who brutally beat Rodney King in March 1991.
Kings opens with a recreation of the killing of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins, shot by South Korean convenience store owner Soon Ja Du after she tried to steal a bottle of orange juice.
Harlins’s death came just days after videotape of the King beating sent shock waves around the world, and the virtual acquittal of Du contributed to simmering racial tension.
While the violence is building, Millie is forced to give up one of her foster children when his biological parent is released from prison, and her pain at the wrenching detachment shows how deeply she cares.
Still hurting from that separation, she witnesses cops hassling teenager William (Kaalan “KR” Walker), whose mother has just been put away, and Millie steps in to claim responsibility for him before the police know what’s happening.
As the action detonates, Millie is separated from the majority of her children, sending her on a panicked search across town, with Obie offering his help.
It’s here that Ergüven’s faltering grasp of the material abandons her, as a brush with a cartoonishly maniacal cop leaves them handcuffed to a street light and awkward romantic overtures ensue.
There’s undeniable power in some of the riot scenes. But there are too many missteps, ultimately trivialising a painful passage in recent American history. – Hollywood Reporter