The King of Staten Island
Judd Apatow has a knack for turning unique comic talents into bankable movie stars, and the director of Trainwreck and Knocked Up just might have done it again, said David Ehrlich in Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson is “unlike any other actor of his generation.” A “compulsively watchable screen presence,” he’s “a scarecrow-size open wound,” and in this “wry and tender” R-rated comedy closely based on his own life, he puts a new spin on the typical Apatow man-child by infusing the part with the same style of confessional humor that he brings to SNL, “like he’s bleeding out in open daylight and the joke is that everybody thinks it’s just a bit.” Davidson plays Scott, a 24-year-old stoner who’s still living at home with his mother in Staten Island when she starts dating for the first time since Scott’s firefighter dad died on the job 17 years earlier. Marisa Tomei plays Scott’s mom, and the actress’ flinty warmth “has rarely been more winning,” said Justin Chang in the
But Bill Burr, as the new firefighter of the household, is even more effective, “both genuinely annoying and genuinely likable.” He and other great supporting characters save the movie from being merely a meandering and overlong comingof-age. Still, Davidson, who co-wrote the screenplay, more than holds his own, said Peter Travers in “You feel the pain under the clowning,” and he has shaped his life story into “something funny, touching, and vital.”
This quiet drama takes “a highly specific scenario” and makes it universally relatable, said
in
Jasmine Batchelor delivers a performance of “stunning psychological insight” playing a Brooklynite who agrees to be the surrogate mother for a gay couple’s child— only to face a hard choice upon learning that the unborn baby has Down syndrome. ($12) PG-13
Dreamland