The King Of Staten Island Review: 6 Ups & 3 Downs

3. Its Timely Themes & Existential Tone

More than perhaps any prior Apatow film, The King of Staten Island has a lot on its mind about the state of the world today, and one of the few upsides of the movie's wide canvas is how free Apatow is to express his worldview.

As such, the script goes off on a number of adventurous and thoughtful tangents, passing commentary on hot-button subjects such as the #MeToo movement, generation clash, gentrification, mental health, and American work culture.

But best of all, it considers the poisonous tendency for human beings to mythologise the dead - often needlessly so.

In Scott's case, his refusal to see his father as anything less than a saintly saviour is holding him back in more ways than one, and for a studio comedy of this sort, it's an unexpected yet totally satisfying angle.

If it absolutely overextends itself in the end, you can't fault the film's desire to be so much more than just another star vehicle for an SNL comedian.