LRFF: KING JACK Review

In King Jack, there is a bully, an older brother, a younger cousin and a world of adults that doesn't seem to exist. In what are the essentials for a coming of age story, our titular Jack is forced to deal with each of these things that could very well exist as nothing more than archetypes in a genre that has become flooded by an affinity for nostalgia over the past few summers. What allows these factors to be set apart, or at least find its own voice lies both in the ability of the actors on screen as well as the films knack for striking a perfect tone. There is a distinct aura around first time feature director Felix Thompson's film that gives it a quality of timelessness. Sans a few minor factors, King Jack could essentially take place at any point in time over the last few decades. The problems are the same, the struggle is identifiable and the predicaments are ones you grow accustomed to if you happen to live in a small rural town where the summers get long and often boring. Jack is on the brink. He is in transition from the boy he's always known to the man he will eventually become and because he doesn't know his way around his own mind, because the world is becoming a bigger place more unknown to him than he's ever felt prior it opens up a sliver of vulnerability in the kid who grew up forced to figure things out on his own. We are introduced to Jack (Charlie Plummer) as he tags a neighbors garage and come to know him all the more through the course of a weekend that sees him not only facing all the aforementioned opponents, but coming to terms with taking responsibility for his actions and ultimately looking out as much for himself as for the few people in his life that he truly cares about.