The Rivals of Amziah King... 89% on Rotten Tomatoes
By Darryl Adachi
Until I committed myself to earnestly studying and memorizing the title of The Rivals of Amziah King , I kept referring to it simply as “the Matt McConaughey movie.” The title gives you no clue as to what the film is about. However, with the movie having been generally well reviewed—and boasting an 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes—I was persuaded to check it out at the Taylor.
It’s difficult to get a handle on exactly what kind of movie The Rivals of Amziah King is. Is it a character study? A documentary about bees? A musical? A buddy movie? A heist caper? A revenge thriller? The film is unique, to say the least. It meanders through its first hour, setting up a story about a beekeeper/musician, his former foster daughter, and his musical band. The early part of the movie plays almost like a music video, featuring a lot of foot-stompin’ bluegrass songs performed by Amziah and his friends. From there, the movie moves into what seems more like a family drama, coupled with some good larnin’ about the secret life of bees. Mixed in with all of that are a couple of sequences that are, at the same time, funny and decidedly unpleasant—and, I might add, seemingly irrelevant to the rest of the film.
McConaughey plays Amziah King, an Oklahoma beekeeper who spends his days tending to his hives and his nights playing bluegrass music with his friends wherever they happen to gather—at a fast-food place, a church potluck dinner, or someone’s home. Amziah is the hub of his social circle, its spiritual anchor. It is while stopping at a local diner that Amziah becomes reacquainted with Kateri, played to great effect by newcomer Angelina LookingGlass. As a young girl, Kateri spent two years in foster care with Amziah and his then-wife. The two reconnect, and a bond begins to develop between them.
Amziah persuades Kateri to work with him on his bee farm, where she becomes his apprentice—and where she is subjected to various long-winded pontifications on bees, life, and other earthy and spiritual topics. McConaughey’s folksy preacher/philosopher persona also comes through as Amziah shares life lessons with friends who seem to hang on his every word. It is to McConaughey’s credit that his long-established laid-back personality allows him to credibly portray Amziah. His performance is one of the movie’s strong points.
One is not quite sure where the story is headed during the first half of the film. However, an episode involving the theft of Amziah’s colony of bees occurs at the end of the first hour and acts as a catalyst for the remainder of the film, completely altering its direction and driving it toward its finale. At this point, it becomes Kateri’s story, as the film takes on the qualities of a noirish revenge drama. LookingGlass gives a solid performance as the film evolves into a crime thriller, albeit not a particularly hard-boiled one, thanks to some implausible plot developments and an ending that seems somewhat rushed.
All that said, the audience that saw the film with me seemed, on the whole, satisfied with it. There were questions about the overall direction of the film, the need for certain sequences, and, not least of all, Kateri’s true character, which seems to take a complete about-face in the latter half of the movie. Viewers are asked to believe that Kateri can be excused for some of her highly questionable actions because she looks so angelic. It might be best to see the film without any preconceived expectations and simply let it slowly develop and take you to its conclusion. One family who attended my showing was watching the film for the third time. If that isn’t a recommendation, I wouldn’t know what is.
