Fantasia Fest 2021:
King Knight (2021)
Written & directed by Richard Bates Jr.
Starring Matthew Gray Gubler, Angela Sarafyan, Andy Milonakis
Running time 1 hour and 18 minutes
Currently unrated but contains sexual language, drug use, murder of one's ego
by Hunter Bush
"Sometimes the most beautiful flowers grow out of the biggest piles of shit"
I'm familiar with writer/director Richard Bates Jr.'s reputation but this is actually the first film of his that I've seen and I've gotta say I'm more than merely intrigued. King Knight is a charming, odd little film, full of heart, about accepting yourself for who you are and learning how to measure success.
Matthew Gray Gubler is perfectly cast and used here as Thorn the patriarch of a modern coven of witches - alongside his partner Willow (Angela Sarafyan) - who has to reckon with a part of his past that he though he'd left far behind: high school. It turns out that introspective, emotionally present Thorn was once Thornton the 311 listening prom king / class president voted most likely to succeed. The revelation that he has not always been the moody and sensitive outsider with the cool name sends shockwaves through the coven, with none so deeply affected as Thorn himself.
Gubler has a kind of sleepy intensity that just works alongside Sarafyan's warmth and measured nonchalance, the two of them conveying the kind of spiritually anchored thoughtfulness that makes them believable as the keystone couple of the coven; the ones whom everyone else comes to with their problems. But once he sets out on a walkabout, essentially going on a vision quest back to his hometown to confront the specters of his past, it's that same sleepy intensity that makes him seem vulnerable.
This isn't a violent or especially frightening film, but you find yourself worrying about Thorn's well-being. He's a gentle soul who just wanted to reinvent himself and while there's nothing wrong with that, what Thorn needs to learn is that you can't truly be who you want to be until you accept who you were.
With King Knight, Richard Bates Jr. delivers a version of Napoleon Dynamite viewed through a Wiccan crystal prism and the end result is endlessly empathetic where no one is the butt of the joke.
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