The Kings of Summer

Three teenage boys (Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, and Moises Arias), disenchanted with their home life, find a clearing in a remote wooded area, and build a house there to escape for the summer. While their families deal with their disappearance, the boys learn to live off the land and live by their own rules.

ClearPlay In Action!

The Kings of Summer is rated R for language and some teen drinking. ClearPlay cut about 90 instances of language, including about 15 F-words. Though the movie emphasizes self-discovery and is played for laughs, the big worry for family viewing would be kids wanting to imitate the behavior. Perhaps best suited for older family members.

Will Kings rule my DVD player?...

The Kings of Summer could be considered an modern-day telling of Walden, Henry David Thoreau’s experiences of living in the wild by Walden Pond (which always made me wonder, wasn’t everybody living in the wild back then?). Kings is a clever, funny picture, particularly the scenes with Nick Offerman as one of the parents. Beautifully shot, with a whimsy that balances fantasy and real life. It makes all those family campouts look rather pedestrian.

Marty Nabhan - ClearPlay Transcendentalist

Rated R for language and some teen drinking; 95 min; Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts