There is a moment in The Rivals of Amziah King when the movie stops being the film you thought you were watching. At first, Andrew Patterson’s neo-Western feels almost gentle. You have Matthew McConaughey wandering through rural Oklahoma, bluegrass drifting through the soundtrack, bees humming around wooden hives, and a community held together by one…
There are movies that change genres gradually, giving you plenty of warning. Then there is The Rivals of Amziah King, which basically looks you in the eye, lets a bluegrass tune play, hands you a jar of honey, and then kicks the door open to a crime thriller. Honestly? I loved the nerve of it….
There are movies that advertise exactly what they are from the first trailer. Then there are movies like The Rivals of Amziah King, which seem to change shape every time you think you have figured them out. Andrew Patterson’s second feature after The Vast of Night takes a seemingly modest subject — beekeeping in rural…
There are movies that fit neatly into a genre, and then there are movies like The Rivals of Amziah King, which seem determined to make the viewer guess what they are watching every twenty minutes. Andrew Patterson’s follow-up to The Vast of Night starts with the deceptively cozy atmosphere of a rural Oklahoma community. There…