The Hidden Angle | 'The King of Staten Island' charts an odd yet warm relationship as it changes over time
A 24-year-old man suffering from major self-esteem issues due to arrested development caused by his father's death when he was younger has to navigate adult life that comes with a range of responsibilities. This journey of an irresponsible, coddled and to an extent damaged young man healing from old scars that he has from his past is the crux of this semi-autobiographical film written by Pete Davidson, Judd Apatow, and Dave Sirus.
The film dissects his relationship with his mother and sister who enable him to lead an aimless life in different ways. In contradiction, it also looks deeper into how a new relationship influences and affects Scott enough to have him change his ways. At the beginning of the film, Scott (Davidson) is interested in nothing beyond hanging out his friends Oscar (Ricky Velez), Richie (Lou Wilson), and Igor (Moises Arias); smoking their stash of weed, selling drugs to kids, and sleeping with Kelsey (Bel Powley) in secret. Scott doesn't think beyond the present; so when his sister does exactly the opposite and plans for her bright future by enrolling herself in college after graduation Scott believes this to be a form of betrayal.
In fact, after Margie (Marisa Tomei) sends her daughter Claire (Maude Apatow) off to college, Scott gives her a nice warm hug to comfort her and says, even though your daughter "abandoned" us for her future, I will never leave you. Usually, a statement such as this would be taken with a pinch of salt but this gives Margie anxiety. All she wants is for her son to find something productive that would give a direction to his life. She doesn't want him to continue in the path that is set on currently, which seems to include tattooing 10-year-old kids. The dependency that Scott has on his hardworking mother to support his lifestyle is problematic.
Margie understands this, but the impetus that she needs to shake her son up comes in the form of Ray. He first meets Margie to ask her to compensate for what her son did to his son. The kid who got tattoed by Scott is none other than Ray's child and just like Scott's father, Ray is also a firefighter. After meeting Margie under this awkward circumstance, he learns more about her and the two are serious enough to move in together. However, the space that Margie lives in right now wouldn't give the two of them privacy with Scott staying as well and that's finally what pushes Margie to tell her son that he would now have to move out and live on his own.
She gives him nine months time to do so and tells him to figure out an occupation that can support him. Margie cutting her son off shakes Scott up because he now doesn't have the safeguard that he did before. Margie might believe that this risk would help her son become mature, but Scott believes that he is being abandoned. The worst part is that he doesn't seem capable of separating his father from Ray. He believes that welcoming Ray into their life would mean that Margie would now risk facing the same loss that she did with his father. Scott believes that another loss similar to the one he faced as a young boy is something that he cannot risk facing again. So instead of bonding with Ray, Scott decides to help his mother make the right decision -- that of breaking up with Ray.
Ray, a man who puts his life at risk every time he puts on his uniform to save others finds Scott to be a lazy man who depends on his mother to meet his basic needs of food and shelter. Initially, the two clash at every turn and this proves to be a mistake because Margie chases both of them out of her life. She tells her son to move out and breaks up with Ray after the two of them get into a physical fight. Fatefully enough, it is this situation that brings Ray and Scott together and it is Ray who helps Scott get over the trauma of being left behind by his father.
He ends up crashing at the fire station that Ray works at because he has nowhere else to go and after living with the other guys at the station, Scott begins to understand the rules that firemen live by. Their life, the values that they live by inspires Scott to take a step in the right direction. The direction that will heal him and give him hope to find something to live for.
The route that he takes towards living a life that he has always dreamed of gets turned roundabout when he gets involved in a B&E. All he had wanted for is to set up a tattoo parlor-restaurant and to get seed money for the same, he plans to steal drugs from a local pharmacist. The entire thing is dicey and it goes wrong minutes into the plan. This also serves as a reality check for Scott, who had until then believed that his life would be easy. No one in his family trusts him because his idea sounds shallow and extremely amateur. However, Scott is a talented artist who when he puts his mind to it can also work on good tattoos.
Both Ray and Margie realize this over time and strangely through Ray's kids who Scott walks to and from school every day. The movie draws a few parallels and one of the most intriguing ones is that of Scott's relationship with his sister Claire in comparison to the little girl Kelly, who happens to be Ray's little daughter. Claire has had to live with Scott's drama forever, and she is now sick of how he has always thought about himself before anyone else.
This could also be the reason why Scott is more open towards confessing his feelings to Kelly and showing his artwork to her brother than opening up to adults because he has only been hurt by them. It is in fact after Ray sees one of the artworks that Scott had gifted his son that Ray believes in Scott's talent and begins to trust him. This is the beginning of an interesting relationship between two men who are not friends, neither are they father and son. However, it is this relationship that helps Scott look at the world with a different view that is more warm and wholesome.
‘The Hidden Angle’ is a weekly column examining narratives, frames and sounds that add value to movies and shows but are not part of conversations surrounding their success or failure. The column will be published Fridays.