Pete Davidson has become famous in recent years mainly for his tumultuous relationship with Kim Kardashian. However, the American comedian and actor has a rich career behind him, which began in 2013 and was consecrated in 2014 by his appearance in the cast of the series Saturday night life. Between one stand-up show and another, Davidson began to make his way into the US comedy scene, playing small roles in several films. Coming out in 2020 King of Staten Islandthe first film in which he is the main character and screenwriter.
The Story of the King of Staten Island
Scott is a 24 year old boy who dropped out of school and lives with his mother and sister in Staten Island. He spends his days smoking marijuana and hanging out with friends he tattoos for practice, hoping to one day become a tattoo artist. Scott’s fatherwhom the boy considers a hero, was a firefighter who died trying to save people from a burning house.
It caused severe injury in him, who cannot find balance in his life, and in his mother, who could not live on after the death of her husband. Scott’s life begins to change when his mother, who after a long time began dating a man, forces the boy to find a job and leave home. Thus, Scott will have to embark on a path that will bring him to justice for every crime. understand many things about himself, about his father and about life.
Pete Davidson meets Scott
Pete Davidson deserves credit for merit to be able to write a script and star in a film dedicated to him, without making him an end in itself and without falling into egocentrism. King of Staten Island this is actually a movie that can be defined semi-biographical. Scott is a fictionalized and slightly, but not overly, exaggerated version of Davidson. The comedian, like the character he plays, lost his father as a child, used large doses of marijuana and lived on Staten Island.
In Scott we also find irreverent comedy and the irreverent attitude typical of Davidson that pervades the film. It is this kind of comedy, combined with a simple but non-trivial plot and an excellent selection of actors, that makes the film enjoyable and exciting. Scott develops throughout the film, starting out as a slacker, eventually learning the values his father’s colleagues instill in him, and after a series of hardships, becomes more mature and responsible.
Through the life of the protagonist. King of Staten Island he teaches us different things, but he does it in his own way, in a Pit Davidsonian way, which, of course, will not be the most traditional and politically correct, but it definitely works.
Staten Island and its king
Then there is Staten Island, the location where the entire movie takes place. The New York area has a symbolic component to this story: everyone loves living there and considers it “the most beautiful place in the world,” but it’s also a place that sooner or later will end up hated. Scott and his friends really don’t like Staten Island, but now they put up with to a mediocre life, they spend their time in an apathetic state, convinced that they cannot achieve more, that they are destined to waste their days and live by their mind.
However, the film makes us understand that this should not be so, that it is possible to respond to humility and apathy given by a certain place or situation. just react and sit on the first transport when it comes to Manhattan, never stop believing.
King of Staten Island now available to stream on Netflix (here you can find all the other releases of September), this is a film that, despite some shortcomings, manages to find right balance between the seriousness that is present in some of the themes and the irreverent comedy scattered throughout the film, never overdoing it or being overdone.