I’ve been trying to come up with the best way to describe Andrew Patterson’s second feature, “The Rivals of Amziah King,” for days. I could describe the plot, but it’s a surprising story, so doing justice to Patterson’s screenplay is a trick unto itself. I could celebrate Patterson’s ecstatic approach to filmmaking, and marvel at how he makes an intricate mosaic out of the western, noir, musical, heist, Christian and revenge genres. But that still doesn’t explain how the movie makes me feel.
“The Rivals of Amziah King” is so much easier to grasp than it is to quantify that, in the end, I find myself, as I often do, turning to the immortal words of Suzy Eddie Izzard. Or, at least, paraphrasing her. For you see, it turns out I like my elegiac masterpieces the way I like Matthew McConaughey: COVERED IN BEES.
Matthew McConaughey plays Amziah King, a small town beekeeper and honey manufacturer who is, sometimes, covered in bees. Amziah keeps bees (so they can’t get away) and extracts and sells their honey. The rest of the time, he plays bluegrass music and helps his community. He rescues an elementary school from a swarm of bees after the teachers and students spiral into terrified, comical chaos. He helps the police solve mysterious honey-based crimes. He drives a severed human scalp to the hospital in the middle of the night, just because a banjo player needs it.
He’s a busy guy, that Amziah King. This town would fall apart without him. When his latest unlikely adventure reunites Amziah with his long-lost foster daughter, Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass), he welcomes her back to the family business and teaches her everything she needs to know. How to keep bees, how to sing bluegrass, how to take care of your family, how to eat pot luck. He even teaches a tiny little bit about God, without ever getting preachy about it.
Kateri is Amziah’s protege but she’s not another Amziah. When life conspires to send Kateri on her own path, she confronts the people who hurt her foster father and makes a series of morally and ethically questionable decisions. But the film reserves its judgment. Everyone in “The Rivals of Amziah King” has their own tale, and although those tales are interconnected there’s no sense of conformity to Patterson’s characters. They behave like a beehive but every drone and worker is unique, and no two queens rule the same way.
Andrew Patterson’s debut feature “The Vast of Night” is one of the most assured, astounding directorial debuts in recent memory. It’s a science fiction tale about the residents of a small desert town, distracted by a high school basketball game, oblivious to the haunting secrets a few young people uncover about their community and the stars. Stylistically it’s an ambitious work, composed in long, elaborate shots that float all over this sprawling yet intimate world, searching the empty spaces for mystery and wonder.
“The Rivals of Amziah King” is just as assured, just as astounding, just as illuminating about rural American life, yet completely different. It’s a bustling film, bursting with music and edited with New Wave zeal. Within a span of seconds it evokes the soulful poetry of Terrence Malick and the bracing cynicism of Samuel Fuller. It’s the best Christian film in years even as it defies Christian ethos, embracing the complexity of human interaction and the essence of the human spirit. There are moments that leap straight out out of the novels of Mark Twain, intercut with the dirty criminality of “Breaking Bad.” Patterson can play a single instrument when he wants but with “The Rivals of Amziah King” he conducts an intricate, electrifying symphony.
Patterson also makes excellent use of Matthew McConaughey, one of modern cinema’s most engaged and engaging performers, who leaps headfirst into every line like it’s the only dialogue he’ll ever have. It’s no wonder everyone in town loves Amziah King, and would do anything — literally anything — for his sake. Within minutes he’s our new favorite person, and nothing he ever says or does proves that instinct wrong.
But this isn’t Amziah’s story. It’s Kateri’s story, and it’s the whole town’s story. Eventually, we view the drama unfold through Kateri’s eyes, and suddenly the film’s priorities change. Kateri is a young, indigenous woman who hasn’t been treated well, except for Amziah and his friends. She’s developed a quiet fortitude Amziah respects and nurtures but cannot share. Amziah welcomes her, his found family welcomes her, and anyone who doesn’t is a likely threat. In this landscape that so vividly evokes the corrupt American west, with its s–tkicker outlaws and smiling rattlesnakes, Kateri’s deeds carry historic weight.
This film is loaded, and it’s ready to explode at a moment’s notice, yet it resists the urge to blow up. That would be too simple. “The Rivals of Amziah King” is an ornate honeycomb of a feature, carefully designed to support supportive people and defend them with sharp objects. It’s not a violent film, although it can certainly be violent, and it’s not a saccharine film, even though it’s incredibly sweet. It’s a banjo plucked at a mile a minute, with a twang that resonates long and loud and clear. It’s further evidence that Andrew Patterson has a special talent for making films about America that look familiar but, upon closer inspection, have no rival.
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