The Rivals of Amziah King

Grade: B+

The opening scene of The Rivals of Amziah King felt like it had been made just for me. It opens with Matthew McConaughey and a few buddies playing The Avett Brothers’ “Talk on Indolence” on various bluegrass instruments. The intro started, and I thought, “Are they playing what I think they’re playing?” Yes they are. Wow. Somebody else knows this song and put it in their movie? And let it play all the way through during the opening credits? I was about five minutes into the movie and already thinking, “Well, here comes my second A in a row.”

It doesn’t stay at that level. It begins at a Sonic-type fast food place where you drive up (or in these guys’ cases, walk up) and order. It’s tradition for McConaughey (who plays beekeeper Amziah King) and the boys to meet at this joint, serenade the employees/customers, and order their “usual.” They finish the song, and are visited by the police, who need their help identifying a truckload of stolen honey. They don’t suspect Amziah, but they know what a Bee Whisperer he is, and they call upon him to see if he can assist. I wasn’t aware that there was such devious activity within the beekeeping community.

Meanwhile, Amziah reconnects with Kateri, a former foster daughter of his. She just happens to be his waitress at a diner. He takes her back into his home, and under his wing as a beekeeping apprentice. This leads to a few dramatic monologues where Amziah waxes poetic about bees. The first half of the movie is light on plot, except for the two aforementioned things, but even they don’t hog the airtime. It’s mostly the film coasting along and taking several narrative breaks for a full song to be played.

After the screenplay makes an unexpected and ballsy choice, the movie’s second half jarringly shifts into a revenge heist caper. The superb live musical interludes are also wrenched out of the picture, which doesn’t help matters. The plot we end up getting is fun, but I hardly felt like I was in the same movie that I started with.

Unfortunately, The Rivals of Amziah King will not make my top ten list, but it is carried by the glorious music – both the diegetic rave-ups that happen in person, and the score, which is in the same beautiful bluegrass/Appalachian genre. It’s carried by two of my favorite performances of the year. McConaughey does the McConaughey thing, but here, it’s exactly what the doctor ordered, and he is really singing and playing. Angelina LookingGlass is a confident, spunky force of nature as Kateri. Once you’ve seen The End of Oak Street, The Rivals of Amziah King is your second best option at the multiplex, by a very close margin. It felt like two different movies, and I wish there had been a better way to marry the two. I liked them both just fine, though.

Grade: B+