After her astounding Oscar-nominated breakthrough drama Mustang, director Deniz Gamze Ergüven expanded her scope and made her English-language debut with Kings, which depicts the L.A. riots through a single mother (Halle Berry) and her neighbor (Daniel Craig). Following a premiere at TIFF last fall, it unfortunately was received with quite a tepid response to say the least, and now it’ll arrive this fall.
“Although the story starts off with a powerful moment — the shooting of an unarmed Latasha Harlins by a convenience store clerk — Ergüven immediately shifts gears, deciding to concentrate the rest of the film on the kids living in the shelter home,” we said in our review. “In a baffling discovery, the realism and visual poetry that was in Mustang is nowhere to be found here. Structurally messy, the director fails to balance a steady tone, let down by an unfocused narrative with unconvincing performances from its newcomer ensemble.”
Ahead of an April release, see the trailer below.
Kings opens on April 27.