A foster family in South Central a few weeks before the city erupts in violence following the verdict of the Rodney King trial in 1992.
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You won't be disappointed!
Such a frustrating disappointment
Film Perfection
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
There is a salient dramatic moment in "Kings" when Halle Berry's character Millie is placed in handcuffs by the police at a time when her little children are looting a store during the 1992 riots. The officer berates Millie by saying, "I'm going to put you in hell." But he doesn't seem to realize that Millie's life is already hell when she recognizes that her children do not even know that what they are doing is wrong in looting the store.In the wake of the Rodney King trial, where four L.A. police officers were acquitted after nearly beating a man to death with the attack captured on video, a tragic set of riots ensued in South Central L.A. Filmmaker Deniz Gamze Ergüven tries to put a human face on the riots with the caring foster mother Millie Dunbar and her children. But a problem is that there are so many children and confusing subplots that it difficult to follow the chain events as depicted in the film.One of the curious plot strands is the relationship of Millie and a kind neighbor named Odie Hardison (Daniel Craig). There was clearly a romantic subtext between Odie and Millie, but on multiple occasions, the connection between the neighbors became farcical. This was especially true on the second occasion when Millie was handcuffed by the policemen, who sped off and left her in cuffs. Odie then performed a spectacular Houdini-like feat in freeing them from the cuffs.The film was successful in showing how South Central became an inferno in 1992. It also framed the melodramatic family story effectively with footage from the Rodney King beating and the senseless shooting of Latasha Harlins by a proprietor in a grocery store. The central image of fire was well developed during the tragedy. The film is dedicated to the memory of Ryan De'Juan Dunbar, who lost his life during the riots.
That very first scene gave me the chills! Something very few movies I've seen can accomplish - and I watch several movies a day as a Content Previewer for work. This movie is incredibly underrated, and I can see why critics have been bashing it. A lot of the people writing negative reviews go into this movie with expectations, specifically political expectations. People wanted to see an accurate depiction of the 1992 L.A riots, but were given something different. You have a view this film a cinematic piece as opposed to pro black lives matter sympathetic film or whatever political agenda people might assume this film is trying to push.The first scene in this title gave me a shiver down my spine. The combination of cinematography, directing and the acting had the perfect chemistry. You could tell that the director really wanted to capture the most finer details, encapsulating human emotion from traumatic experiences. The character development was a slow burn, but burned right. It was a very unpredictable film hence why you should go see it with no expectations. I've personally never heard of this director before, or the writer. So this is completely an unbiased perspective of this fine film.I definitely recommend seeing it.
...The saddest thing about Kings is the fact that the movie had so much potential. I am talking about the talents ...Daniel Craig...Halle Berry...and also timeline of the story chosen "Post Rodney King's trial" riots. Sadly the director was unable to utilize the potential and ended making a movie in which the plot is everywhere......As in really!, what is this movie about?, starts off like a story about a foster mom struggling to care for her foster children...Then before you know it, there is a teenaged girl rebelling something at school thrown in the mix....now you probably think, she is gona be connected to the foster home story...but she is just kept on the sidelines...Then there is Daniel Craig placed in as a neighbor...as in was he significant to the story, even if it's based on true story, the director had to keep some sort of a focus ...you don't just carelessly thrown anything in the mix....Then there is the riot...If this movie was given to good director with all the potentials that sorround it...might have been a great movie
The movie starts very well, however after the riots the movie is a mess and quickly escalate to bad. Is too sad because the movie had potential with great actor and characters