''Kings'' is a 2017 English-language

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

written and directed by

Deniz Gamze Ergüven Deniz Gamze Ergüven (born 4 June 1978), is a Turkish-French film director best known for her debut feature film ''Mustang''. Early life and education Ergüven was born in Ankara, Turkey but moved to France in the 1980s. She grew up and went to ...

. The film stars Halle Berry and Daniel Craig. The film had its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2017. The film was screened during three days as part of Stockholm's International Film Festival held in November 2017. The film was screened at the Torino Film Festival in Italy before opening wide by Spring 2018.

Plot

Millie Dunbar is a single mother with eight adopted children in South Los Angeles. Her neighbour, Obie, is the only white man in the neighborhood. Together they form an unlikely team during the Rodney King riots.

Cast

* Halle Berry as Millie Dunbar * Daniel Craig as Obie Hardison * Lamar Johnson as Jesse Cooper * Kaalan 'KR' Walker as William McGee *

Rachel Hilson Rachel Naomi Hilson (born October 30, 1995) is an American actress. She started her career in 2010 with a recurring role on the CBS legal drama ''The Good Wife'' as Nisa Dalmar. She has also had recurring roles on NBC's '' Rise'' and ''This Is Us' ...

as Nicole Patterson * Issac Ryan Brown as Shawnte * Callan Farris as Ruben * Serenity Reign Brown as Peaches * Reece Cody as Tiger * Gary Yavuz Perreau as Carter * Aiden Akpan as Jordan * Ce’Onna Johnson as Sherridanne * Kirk Baltz and Peter Mackenzie as Police Officers * Kevin Carroll as Manager * Davis Pasquesi as Howard Quartay Denaya played Latasha Harlins, while an uncredited

Rick Ravanello Rick Ravanello (born 24 October 1967) is a Canadian actor and ex-bodybuilder who has appeared in several television series and movies. Known primarily from action and thriller films, he often portrayed soldiers, military men and detectives. Bi ...

played Officer Camello.

Production

Ergüven started working on the film when she graduated from La Fémis film school in 2006. It took her three years to write the script as she frequented South Los Angeles for research. In 2011, she was invited to the

Cinéfondation La ''Cinéfondation'' is a foundation under the aegis of the Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Fest ...

workshop at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

, where she met

Alice Winocour Alice Winocour (born 13 January 1976) is a French screenwriter and director. Life and career Winocour was born in Paris, France, to a Jewish family. After studying screenwriting at La Fémis, Winocour made three short films and wrote the script ...

. After struggling to find producers and financiers for the project, she went on instead to write with Winocour and direct ''

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticated animals, the ...

'', which was released in 2015 and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The success of ''Mustang'' finally allowed her to make the film. Principal photography began on December 27, 2016 in Los Angeles. Filming lasted until mid February 2017.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approval rating of 13% based on 38 reviews, and an average rating of 3.53/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Kings'' has good intentions, a talented cast, and the basis for an incredible fact-based story; unfortunately, they don't amount to much more than a missed opportunity." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 34 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

References

External links