King of California.

"King of California proves light on its feet but often less funny or wise than it purports to be, its air of self-satisfaction partially interfering with its genuine insights," writes Nick Schager at Slant. "Regardless of its preciousness, though, there's a shrewdness and heart to the relationship between Miranda [Evan Rachel Wood] and Charlie [Michael Douglas], largely due to [director Mike] Cahill's perceptivity about the affection children have for their parents—a love so deeply rooted and inextricable that it often drives one to behave out-and-out illogically."

"It's A Woman Under the Influence meets The Goonies, but not half as good as that sounds," writes Chris Wisniewski at indieWIRE.

Updated through 9/19.

"Mr Douglas, giving his strongest screen performance since Wonder Boys, creates a portrait of a fanatic on a tear that is at once endearing and maddening, and not overplayed," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "As parent-teenager stories go, King of California runs pointedly against the grain. The exact opposite of Ms Wood's character in Thirteen, Miranda doesn't run wild. She is the responsible one, but on her own terms. The child is caretaker to the parent, who may be mad but who is also a holy fool, and holy fools are worth protecting."

"A melancholy, astute fable about mass conformity, King of California lets its characters successfully escape the encroaching monoculture via history and fantasy," writes Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times.

"I admired Cahill's sly juxtaposition of the California of Charlie's imagination, one of yellowing maps and shimmering doubloons, and the California of Charlie's life, which is littered with chain stores and restaurants and where the most exotic wildlife is found on a carefully landscaped golf course," writes Matt Singer at IFC News. "But speaking personally, there's only so much forced whimsy I can take."

"Much like the underappreciated Down in the Valley, which also stars Wood, King of California has an evocative feeling for locale, as civilization and order encroaches on SoCal dreamers who don't fit into their homogenous designs," writes Scott Tobias at the AV Club.

Cristy Lytal tells the backstory, including the bit about how Alexander Payne ended up co-producing, in the LAT.

"King of California is a cute, quirky film; when I first saw it at Sundance it felt a little light and fizzy compared to some of the heavier fest fare, but it's kind of grown on me over time," writes Kim Voynar at Cinematical.

Update, 9/15: Patricia Chui interviews Douglas for Cinematical.

Update, 9/19: "Hard to tell what's more annoying in this empty character study of eccentrics and the suckers who love them: the braying, blurting soundtrack or Douglas himself, who can't find his way into a man tortured by dull demons," writes Robert Wilonsky in the Voice.

Posted by dwhudson at September 14, 2007 9:07 AM