It’s difficult to imagine the first two feature films in a director’s filmography being as diverse as the initial pair from Oklahoma-based writer-director Andrew Patterson. His debut, The Vast Of Night, is a small-town sci-fi mystery that plays like a 90-minute Twilight Zone episode, marked by audacious oners, a minimalist story and its cast of lesser-known actors. His follow-up, the crackling country-fried caper The Rivals Of Amziah King, blows out the story of a beekeeper and his stolen hives into a 2+ hour crime saga, buzzing with crisply-cut storytelling and the ineffable star power of Matthew McConaughey. Why his first live-action leading role for a theatrical release in six and a half years hasn’t elicited more fanfare (and more robust distribution) is both puzzling and disappointing. This is some of the finest work of his career, on par with his stellar “McConaissance” run in the 2010s.
McConaughey plays the titular rascally business mind behind King Honey, which gets its product from hives and equipment that Amziah owns and operates in rural Oklahoma. King also moonlights as a mandolin player, recruiting bluegrass musicians to fill venues from drive-up food joints to potluck-hosting ballrooms with their dulcet tones. Grabbing coffee at a diner one morning, King’s served by his former foster daughter Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass), whose mother recently passed away. A born-again Christian, Amziah sees their meeting as a chance to right the wrongs of his past and takes Kateri under his wing as he teaches her the ways of beekeeping and farming. When King’s hives are stolen out from under him, shady magnate Dob McCoy (Kurt Russell) is pinpointed as the primary suspect and a plan for retribution is hatched.
Metaphors about colony order for a tight-knit Southern community may seem obvious for a movie ostensibly about bees but The Rivals Of Amziah King gets it honest. Explaining the roles of the three primary players of a beehive — the drones, the worker bees, the queen — apiarist Amziah aptly sums up their way of life: “Everybody lookin’ out for each other. That’s a healthy hive.” It’s a core value to the storytelling here, which makes excellent use of an ensemble cast, including Tony Revolori and Rob Morgan, who step up when the “honey” hits the fan. Whether it’s pushing a barrel off an overpass at just the right time or lending a pickup truck hearty enough to power through a stream, the characters all do their part to retrieve the pilfered hives. Even in a far-fetched fable like this one, it’s heartening to watch folks coming together for the greater good and if it’s also to share the occasional music performance, all the better.
Befitting its wily protagonist, The Rivals Of Amziah King gets charmingly sidetracked from its primary plotline but even the tangents add their own sweetness and flavor to the cinematic meal. As an example, there’s a detour at a bee-infested elementary school that doesn’t advance the story but shows us a different side of Amziah outside of his apiary. He and Kateri are called on during an emergency when a swarm of bees in a classroom has made its way through the ventilation system, leading to panic and an evacuation by students and teachers. Arriving in his beekeeping veil and smock, Amziah assures the petrified principal, “this whole scenario is way more melodramatic than it needs to be,” and gets right to work. McConaughey, if no one else, has been the on-screen embodiment of “cool, calm, and collected” for decades now but his specific brand of confidence makes that setpiece sing.
I’m not sure how much mandolin McConaughey learned for The Rivals Of Amziah King — I’ve only heard tell of his eccentric bongo playing — but he certainly pulls off the band scenes (like the one over the opening credits) convincingly. King’s apprenticeship of Kateri doesn’t stop at beekeeping, as he prods her to join in with group harmonies during impromptu music performances with company over in his living room. I’m not sure exactly which parts are technically music score and original songs written for the film but in any event, the music throughout Patterson’s rollicking sophomore effort is infectious as all get out. If you consider yourself a fan of the Soggy Bottom Boys from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, you need to make a beeline for the soundtrack on your music streaming platform of choice. As for the film, if you can’t catch it in theater, it’ll be available to rent starting September 15th.
Score – 4/5
New movies coming to theaters this weekend:
Onslaught, starring Adria Arjona and Dan Stevens, follows an army sniper as she struggles to protect her young daughter from an army of genetically engineered super soldiers who escaped from a secret military facility.
By Any Means, starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, sees a notorious mafia hitman and a young Black FBI agent teaming up to investigate the murders of civil rights leaders in 1966 Mississippi.
Fall 2: Deadpoint, starring Harriet Slater and Arsema Thomas, centers around a pair of rock climbers who plan to conquer a treacherous plank walk in Thailand but a sudden rockslide leaves them trapped at a terrifying height of 3,000 feet.
Reprinted by permission of Whatzup