The Rivals of Amziah King — A Hum of Rotten Honey

The Rivals of Amziah King: full review

After dazzling the independent circuit with The Vast of Night (2019) — a masterclass in squeezing a shoestring budget through the suggestive use of sound and long takes — Andrew Patterson seemed destined for greater heights. His leap to a bigger production with A-list names like Matthew McConaughey and Kurt Russell promised a Southern rural epic with an edge. What has reached screens is, unfortunately, a glaring example of how complacency can disarm a promising storyteller.

Set in an earthy, oppressive Oklahoma, the film chronicles the clashes around the underworld of honey trafficking and the criminal feuds of an isolated community. Patterson embraces the 1.37:1 Academy ratio, a formalist decision that, instead of giving the story a classic, suffocating texture, feels like an unnecessary corset on a digitally washed-out image.

The opening tries to establish a telluric mythology: honey barrels filmed with the liturgy of sacred relics, dust hanging in the air and strummed bluegrass songs. But twenty minutes in, the aesthetic fascination dissipates. What remains is a lethargic narrative that drags itself through 131 minutes without finding a genuine dramatic core to justify such a display of solemnity.

Direction and mise-en-scène

Patterson shoots as if every frame were destined for a retrospective before the film has proven it knows how to breathe. The circular pans over beehives and industrial sheds try to build a hypnotic tone but end up redundant. The staging gives up on dynamism in favor of an almost theatrical frontality that freezes the interaction between characters.

Visually, M.I. Littin-Menz’s cinematography goes for earthy tones and arc-light contrasts that, in theory, should recall the great New Hollywood titles of the seventies. However, the flat digital treatment and the absence of real film grain produce a lifeless image, closer to a country-fashion advertorial than to the rough rural noir of John Huston or Peter Yates.

The editing doesn’t help it take flight either. The supposed confrontation sequences are needlessly drawn out, intercut with empty landscape shots and fixed stares in search of a non-existent lyricism. When the physical conflict finally erupts in the beehive warehouse, the cuts are erratic and rob the sequence of any clear sense of space.

Performances and script

Matthew McConaughey slips into Amziah King’s skin by pulling out his whole catalog of usual tics: the syllabic drawl, the squint toward the horizon and the quasi-biblical cadence. His monologue about honey being the substance that holds the county’s life together borders on the unintentionally comic; there is no real character under the wrapping, just an exercise in histrionic self-promotion.

Kurt Russell, as Dob McCoy, brings sober veteran authority and some real weight to his few appearances, but his role is painted with a broad brush: the bitter old patriarch who watches his kingdom crumble while barely putting up a fight. The rest of the cast, from Angelina LookingGlass to a frankly out-of-place Cole Sprouse, wander around like decorative figures in a plot that mistakes expressive dryness for psychological substance — and ends up with neither.

The script, written by Patterson himself, suffers from an alarming shortage of dramatic ideas. Subplots open and close without palpable consequences; the dialogue insists again and again on beekeeping metaphors that exhaust the viewer’s patience long before the climax. There is no moral dilemma that goes beyond the surface of the rural pose.

The best

• Kurt Russell’s presence: His stature as an actor provides the only gust of truth in an ensemble dominated by artifice.
• Formal ambition: Patterson isn’t content to shoot on autopilot; he tries to build a recognizable visual universe, even if it backfires.
• Details of the sound design: Certain passages of acoustic bluegrass manage to convey the melancholy of the American landscape.

The worst

• A pretentious, circular script: Forced metaphors repeated without pushing the plot forward or enriching the characters.
• McConaughey on self-parody autopilot: Repetitive mannerisms that no longer surprise or move anyone.
• A phlegmatic pace with no justification: More than two hours of running time for a story that would have fit into a tight featurette.
• Disjointed editing: A lack of tension in key sequences and transitions that break emotional continuity.

The Claqueta Ácida Verdict 💀

The Rivals of Amziah King is the classic stumble of the prodigy filmmaker who mistakes a comfortable budget for the freedom not to prune what’s superfluous. A film that promises the visceral punch of small-town noir and delivers only slow shots, pompous monologues and insurmountable drowsiness. Andrew Patterson’s talent is still there, but this time it has drowned in a jar of rancid honey. 💀

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⚔️ Editorial Duel: Second Opinion Dr. Cinismo's score: 6.8/10

The rebuttal from Dr. Cinismo (Pretentiousness Radar)

In stark disagreement with the review given by Maximiliano Z..

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Patterson demostró en The Vast of Night que entendía la economía del suspense. Aquí ha creído que contar con McConaughey y Kurt Russell lo eximía de tener un tercer acto con pulso. La estética no rescata un guion disperso.