Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island” has been screening for press these last two weeks. Screener links were first distributed to awards-season pundits, signifying that Universal has a lot of faith in this film’s Oscar/Golden Globes chances, then national critics received their screeners just late last week. The response has been glowing, with a colleague telling me Apatow’s first movie in over 5 years is a “total triumph” and another journalist pal comparing the “raw” drama to the ‘60s British “Kitchen Sink” genre.
The embargo for “The King of Staten Island” lifts on Monday, June 8th.
Can I say, based on what I have seen and heard from others, that Judd Apatow’s movie will be the first official Best Picture contender of this pandemic year? Normally, a Judd Apatow movie, no matter how good it might be, wouldn’t be considered as “Oscar-Bait,” but we’re living in very unique times at the moment and the fact that plenty of movie fans will be experiencing this movie via VOD could very well build buzz and change the game in terms of 2020 streaming content. A domino effect of landmark proportions could happen if Apatow’s movie ends up being critically-acclaimed and highly buzzed for awards. Despite the inevitable backlash from theater chains such as AMC and Regal, one can only hope this happens, that we get more quality content sent straight to VOD because let’s be honest here, movie theaters aren’t opening any time soon and will, in fact, be one of the last businesses to reopen in Los Angeles and New York City, the two most important hubs for movie mass distribution in the United States.
Back on May 9th, I wrote:
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, for now, set for a July release, that would be Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet.”
However, Judd Apatow’s much-anticipated 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 (after “Trolls World Tour” and “Artemis Fowl”). “The King of Staten Island” will be available to for purchase on June 12th, a week before it was scheduled to debut in theaters.
Apatow’s first movie since 2015’s “Trainwreck” clocks in at a whopping two hours and 16 minutes—his second-longest after Funny People. The latest trailer (below), seems to indicate that Apatow’s blend of humor and drama will be at the rendezvous again, and with Pete Davidson himself co-writing the script, you can tell this will have shades of an autobiographical film.