One of the most rollicking and absurd opening sequences in a film this summer can be found in “The Rivals of Amziah King.” There’s a bandana-crowned, banjo-strumming Matthew McConaughey in a fast-food parking lot kicking things off and teasing the kinetic flair of the film’s director, Andrew Patterson. But soon after, a scene involving a honey extractor and a missing hat leaves you suddenly gobsmacked.
It’s an unexpected flare of chaos and also a primer for a movie that sometimes delightfully, sometimes messily careens between tones and genres to make for one of the more unruly and boisterous feel-good movies this year.
That’s in large part because of McConaughey, who is used properly for the first time in years. Here, his soulful all-rightness splits the difference between the overly self-serious streak that gave his career a second act, and that sandy smirk that gave him his first one. As Amziah, he is a magnetic beekeeper, local performer and friend to all. When Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass), his former foster child, reappears, he finds new purpose amid pain peeking underneath all that beaming charisma.
This first half is more of a picaresque — call it “The Adventures of Amziah King” — but when shady thieves interfere with Amziah’s honey business, the film shifts into cartoonish true-crime mode, “Tiger King”-style. It drags and strains credulity primarily in Kateri’s arc, and the fresh-faced LookingGlass is given too much responsibility (and too many overindulgent close-ups) to sell it. But the film still has just enough verve to rope itself back on track, like an Amziah song that’s gone on too long, before an irresistible melody pulls you back in.
The Rivals of Amziah King Rated R for language and some grisly images. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes. In theaters.
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