There were only a handful of big studio movies I was looking forward to this summer. Most have been delayed to a later release date (“The French Dispatch,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Soul,” “A Quiet Place II,” “In the Heights”) whereas one remaining title is still set for a July release, although I presume it will be rescheduled (that would be Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet”). However, today there some good news came in the form of at least one hotly anticipated summer movie skipping theaters for on-demand rental.
Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island,” Universal’s Pete Davidson-starring comedy, will be hitting VOD in June, making it the latest film to cancel a traditional theatrical release for direct home viewing instead. “The King of Staten Island” will be available to purchase on June 12th, a week before it was scheduled to debut in theaters. Davidson and Apatow announced the news in a video posted via Twitter.
Here’s the official synopsis for the movie:
“Scott (Davidson) has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He’s now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach. As his ambitious younger sister heads off to college, Scott is still living with his exhausted ER nurse mother and spends his days smoking weed, hanging with the guys and secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey. But when his mother starts dating a loudmouth firefighter named Ray (Bill Burr, Netflix’s F Is for Family), it sets off a chain of events that will force Scott to grapple with his grief and take his first tentative steps toward moving forward in life. The film also stars Steve Buscemi as Papa, a veteran firefighter who takes Scott under his wing, and Pamela Adlon (FX’s Better Things) as Ray’s ex-wife, Gina.”
“The King Of Staten Island” co-stars Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr, Bel Powley, Maude Apatow Pamela Adlon, Steve Buscemi, Ricky Velez (“Master of None”), Moises Arias (“Five Feet Apart”) and Lou Wilson (“The Guest Book”).
“Hope,” Na’s first film in ten years — his last one being the exemplary “The Wailing” —is a gloriously messy, blood-soaked sci-fi epic that may become a cult classic despite—or because of—its polarizing nature.