Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Jul 15, 2016 12:12:15 GMT -5
King of California
Dir. Mike Cahill
Premiered September 14, 2007
In the early 17th Century, the Spanish priest and mathematician Juan Florismarte Torres led an expedition through Alta California, then thought to be an island. Along the Santa Clara River, his company was attacked by the native Tataviam Indians, and his cache of gold was lost.
The story isn’t true. The Spanish didn’t explore California by land for nearly another 150 years. But if you drive away from Los Angeles in every direction, you will come across little valleys, farms, a hint of the motherland that once was, being systematically anglicized, paved, and forgotten. It is into this world that King of California begins.
Abandoned by her mother, teen Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood) picks up her father Charlie (Michael Douglas) from a mental institution where he has been held over a year for bipolar disorder. Charlie’s world has changed; in just a couple years, the family farm has been transformed into an anachronism surrounded by lifeless, remote bedroom communities, all with rambling, nonsensical Spanish names. Miranda has dropped out of school to support herself, and now must support him. And he has a dream: to discover the gold that Fr. Torres lost.
Miranda, the realist, has always doubted Charlie’s flights of fancy, dismissing them as manic episodes. But over and over, his deductions and predictions prove right, bringing her into the hunt for buried treasure... buried under a Costco.
California Nationalism, at least in its present incarnation, is too young to have played a factor in the writing of King of California, but writer-director Mike Cahill clearly knows his stuff, and has a point to make. At one point, a ten-year-old Miranda is obliged to build a model of one of the Spanish Missions dotting the landscape, a rite of passage for all fourth graders.* Charlie’s awareness of the country’s dark, troubled, and decidedly non-Anglophone heritage is rejected and ignored by others. And his beard is cleverly groomed in the style of a Spanish conquistador. He is a man refusing to let go of the past, and although his means may be dubious, he is ultimately moral for doing so.
Although the film’s score often goes too far into whimsy, King of California is an unconventionally beautiful look at my home state at a low point in its character. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to see Michael Douglas outside his usual cold-blooded bastard persona– this is the most charming he has ever been, and it’s worth seeing just for that.
Additional Notes
Also in Theaters
Across the Universe, D-War, Eastern Promises, In the Valley of Elah, and King of California all arrived in theaters September 14, 2007. But wait, there’s more! The Brave One, in which Jodie Foster becomes a vigilante, also came out, as did Mr. Woodcock, a film most remembered for ripping off the previous year’s School for Scoundrels, being advertised as one giant dick joke, and co-starring famous indie musician W.R. “Billy Bob” Thornton as well as noted political theorist Susan Sarandon.
Next Time: Timecrimes
Dir. Mike Cahill
Premiered September 14, 2007
In the early 17th Century, the Spanish priest and mathematician Juan Florismarte Torres led an expedition through Alta California, then thought to be an island. Along the Santa Clara River, his company was attacked by the native Tataviam Indians, and his cache of gold was lost.
The story isn’t true. The Spanish didn’t explore California by land for nearly another 150 years. But if you drive away from Los Angeles in every direction, you will come across little valleys, farms, a hint of the motherland that once was, being systematically anglicized, paved, and forgotten. It is into this world that King of California begins.
Abandoned by her mother, teen Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood) picks up her father Charlie (Michael Douglas) from a mental institution where he has been held over a year for bipolar disorder. Charlie’s world has changed; in just a couple years, the family farm has been transformed into an anachronism surrounded by lifeless, remote bedroom communities, all with rambling, nonsensical Spanish names. Miranda has dropped out of school to support herself, and now must support him. And he has a dream: to discover the gold that Fr. Torres lost.
Miranda, the realist, has always doubted Charlie’s flights of fancy, dismissing them as manic episodes. But over and over, his deductions and predictions prove right, bringing her into the hunt for buried treasure... buried under a Costco.
California Nationalism, at least in its present incarnation, is too young to have played a factor in the writing of King of California, but writer-director Mike Cahill clearly knows his stuff, and has a point to make. At one point, a ten-year-old Miranda is obliged to build a model of one of the Spanish Missions dotting the landscape, a rite of passage for all fourth graders.* Charlie’s awareness of the country’s dark, troubled, and decidedly non-Anglophone heritage is rejected and ignored by others. And his beard is cleverly groomed in the style of a Spanish conquistador. He is a man refusing to let go of the past, and although his means may be dubious, he is ultimately moral for doing so.
Although the film’s score often goes too far into whimsy, King of California is an unconventionally beautiful look at my home state at a low point in its character. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to see Michael Douglas outside his usual cold-blooded bastard persona– this is the most charming he has ever been, and it’s worth seeing just for that.
Signs This Was Made in 2007
How much has changed indeed. The dense, remote, rural clusters of prefabricated homes in which the film is set are known as exurbs, and were popular among lower-middle-class commuters in the 1990s and 2000s. Just as the film came out, however, the price of gas skyrocketed to the point that it became cheaper to live in the inner city. People got rid of their cars, the values of the houses collapsed, and most became underwater while many others were never lived in, and to this day sit abandoned. The bond market crashed, and then the stock market crashed, and then the global economy crashed. And here we are.
Additional Notes
- *The exception being me, who, despite being a devotee of Californio history, had a teacher who had spent her whole life in Georgia until that year and knew nothing of the land. Technically nobody in our class should've gone on to fifth grade because of that.
- King of California is the only writing or directing credit for Mike Cahill, a man who has the shortest iMDB page I have ever seen. For that reason, expect to see this film highlighted again as part of Zack Clopton’s “No Encores.”
Also in Theaters
Across the Universe, D-War, Eastern Promises, In the Valley of Elah, and King of California all arrived in theaters September 14, 2007. But wait, there’s more! The Brave One, in which Jodie Foster becomes a vigilante, also came out, as did Mr. Woodcock, a film most remembered for ripping off the previous year’s School for Scoundrels, being advertised as one giant dick joke, and co-starring famous indie musician W.R. “Billy Bob” Thornton as well as noted political theorist Susan Sarandon.
Next Time: Timecrimes
