The Kings of Summer
CBS Films | Release Date: May 31, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesNell MinowJun 6, 2013
Wise, touching, and often wildly funny, Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 30, 2013
The coming-of-age film is poignant and comical, sitting squarely on that threshold, focusing on the time when a teen is part boy, part man and all adolescent. Read full review
83
The PlaylistCory EverettMar 10, 2013
While the premise of the film is outlandish, the feelings are all real...Director Vogt-Roberts and screenwriter Chris Galletta are in perfect unison on this film, harmonizing to create what feels like a fresh comic voice. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 22, 2013
Vogt-Roberts manages the neat trick of making his film feel both nostalgic and current. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCatherine BrayAug 21, 2013
A gorgeous, amusing ode to the pleasures of stretching your wings a little. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 21, 2013
This is the kind of movie that is so embraceable that it floats smoothly over those imperfections almost unnoticed. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 6, 2013
Sometimes, a movie just has a magic about it, something that makes you look past implausibility and plot holes and whatever other shortcomings it may have and leaves you feeling good just for having seen it. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 20, 2013
The movie has a profound understanding of the back-and-forth nature of the bond between boys, and it ends on a silent note of forgiving looks and instant reconciliation that is the privilege of the young, whose lives aren’t yet complicated enough to put resentment before friendship Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 7, 2013
A stylish and very funny teenage coming-of-age story graced with surreal fringes and a mysteriously hushed core. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJun 6, 2013
A bit undernourished to fit into the crown of a comedy classic. But the sharp wit, soft-focus cinematography and slow-motion lyricism lift it into the realm of this summer’s nicest surprises. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 29, 2013
A summer movie that staggers down that fine line between sentimental and snarky, a tale of nature and nurture and first love that manages to charm more than any R-rated movie about horny teens has a right to. Read full review
70
TimeMary PolsJun 3, 2013
The slight but captivating indie-comedy The Kings of Summer has the ragtag look and feel of a movie made in some teenager’s basement Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 30, 2013
The filmmakers are a bit like their boys of summer, plowing into new terrain in promising ways but rough around the edges. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMay 30, 2013
The best way to enjoy The Kings of Summer is to view it as a likable comic fantasy dreamed up by filmmakers (Chris Galletta wrote the screenplay) who are close enough to adolescence to infuse their ramshackle story with a youthful, carefree whimsy. Read full review
70
VarietyJohn AndersonMar 22, 2013
[The Kings of Summer] is much more interested in the laughs that can be mined from character rather than plot. Galletta’s script, Vogt-Roberts’ direction and the distinctive play of the actors, notably Offerman and Mullally, lets the viewer know who everyone is right away, and the gag lines flow. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMar 10, 2013
Even if the movie ultimately proves less adventurous than its main characters, it has a charm that keeps resurfacing every time you think it’s wandering too far into cutesville. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJun 5, 2013
It’s Robinson’s tender portrayal of Joe that sticks in your mind. He and Tye Sheridan from "Mud" are the summer’s real finds: young actors with promising futures. Read full review
67
Film.comAmanda May MeynckeMar 22, 2013
[The Kings of Summer] is a wonderful mix of innocence, laughter and beauty that is enjoyable in the moment, yet it’s almost entirely forgettable. With too many odd asides and complications, what should have been a straightforward journey into self-discovery and the difficulties of growing up is waylaid by unnecessary moments and slightly self-indulgent filmmaking. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereJun 6, 2013
The foundation of a much better movie is buried somewhere beneath the debris that’s too quickly piled on to The Kings of Summer, but there’s something at least strangely organic in its abandonment of a sturdier architectural project. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 1, 2013
I didn't feel strongly one way or another about The Kings of Summer. It's too innocuous to actively dislike but there's nothing memorable here. The characters are bland; the comedy, while occasionally eliciting laughs, is lukewarm; and the relationships never gel. Read full review
60
The GuardianMike McCahillSep 22, 2014
The director's background in online shorts manifests itself in an occasional, montage-heavy scattiness, and the broadly conventional closing act can't quite maintain the laugh rate, but there's a lot of warm-hearted and commendably daft business along the way. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJun 3, 2013
The Kings of Summer is far from original, but it’s also far stranger than it seems, in ways both good and bad. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMay 31, 2013
Built on dry one-liners, off-kilter timing and self-conscious nostalgia, The Kings of Summer seems expressly designed to delight quirk-loving Sundance audiences. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 31, 2013
Has some vitality, but it sinks into cliché just the same. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJun 7, 2013
The Kings of Summer flirts with profundity, seeming to yearn for it and fear the honest expression of it at the same time. There is much here to admire, but the overall impression is of a film that does not have the courage of its convictions. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 6, 2013
Without the benefit of deeper psychological spadework, The Kings of Summer stays resolutely on the surface, resembling more of an extended sitcom than a memorable movie on a par with the films it references. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJun 3, 2013
Compare this film with "Mud," and you realize how desperately you cared about the fate of the boys in "Mud," whereas those in Vogt-Roberts's movie are often too listless and too plaintive to earn, let alone heighten, our anxiety. [3 June 2013, p.74]
50
NPRMark JenkinsMay 31, 2013
Like the recent "Mud," The Kings of Summer is a tale of feral adolescent pals in search of freedom and adventure. The movies even share essentially the same awkwardly contrived climax. But of the two films, The Kings of Summer is more of a comedy, with a depiction of the eternal war between teen and parent that's downright farcical. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChris CabinMay 28, 2013
The film's aesthetic is marked by off-tempo editing and a tone that vacillates between grim and coy, and though it's occasionally visually evocative, it's also unmistakably over-calculated. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubIgnatiyVishnevetskyMay 29, 2013
The Kings Of Summer doesn’t take itself seriously; short of having the actors break character, it’ll do anything for a laugh. It leans heavily on interminable improv scenes and interminable montages edited from improv scenes. In other words, much of it plays like the outtakes reel that would be shown at the wrap party of a better, more tightly structured film. Read full review
40
Village VoiceInkoo KangMay 28, 2013
The Kings of Summer plays like an extended sitcom episode, and not a very special one at that. Read full review
40
Time OutEric HynesMay 28, 2013
Eager to please and easy on the eyes, The Kings of Summer sails right down the middle, safely tacking between sitcom setups and grandiose MGMT-scored montages without forming its own distinctive feel. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithMay 30, 2013
Less a movie than a checklist of indiecinema clichés. Youth on a journey of self-discovery? Got it. Dead mom? Uh-huh. Wounded and entitled when it’s trying to be soulful, plotless, laden with indie rock and entirely overhyped at Sundance? Checkarooney. Read full review
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