The Rivals of Amziah King Review: Bluegrass, Bees, and Honey Make This Heartwarming McConaughey Film Sing

Images courtesy of Madman Entertainment.

The Rivals of Amziah King is director Andrew Patterson’s second feature film, and a complete change in style following the 2019 sci-fi debut The Vast of Night. The film is a shapeshifting, sepia toned exploration of the life of a Southern beekeeper, Amziah King (Matthew McConaughey) as he reunites with a foster child he used to parent, Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass), all the while navigating the vicious honey business.

McConaughey exudes natural charisma in his role, filling out every scene with his warm and genuine presence. Spending the entirety of the first two acts with him making every scene so vibrant comes with the unfortunate drawback of making most of the third act –where the story puts greater emphasis on other characters – feel empty, and sluggish by comparison. LookingGlass puts on a compelling and sympathetic performance in her debut role, and the entire supporting cast is very strong, full of well written and unique characters that actually feel like they’re a part of the film’s world, instead of being simple comedic relief for the protagonists.

The visuals are understated without being unremarkable, with Patterson restraining from using anything flashier than a few montages to prevent the audience from being distracted by the beautiful and grounded story he’s telling. The film, despite being shot on digital cameras, uses digital film grain to compliment the sepia colour tone,  evoking a rustic, southern feeling. This works for the most part, but does result in the occasional uncanny shot where the sheen of digital cinematography clashes with the aesthetics of the film grain. 

The film is stylistically similar to the works of Guy Ritchie, feeling like a child friendly version of his film The Gentlemen (2019), swapping that film's vicious drug magnate to a charming and mild mannered honey farmer. The plot is simple and straightforward, but the script is one of the funniest and most charming of the year. The film is constantly shifting tones but refuses to be(e) boring in any of them, going from a low stakes mystery to a school drama to revenge thriller over its runtime. Similar to Ritchie’s works, there is a beautiful soundtrack underscoring the film, both diegetic and non-diegetic, with no shortage of bluegrass performances from McConaughey–who actually sings–and the supporting cast. 

The film’s primary shortcoming lies in its editing. There are too many freeze frames in seemingly random places that don’t place emphasis on anything, too many fades to black that grind the film's momentum to a halt, and too many shots of the actors not matching the timing of what they’re saying. The ending of the film suffers from some pacing issues as well, cutting dramatically to black on conclusive notes three separate times before ending, leaving the actual ending feel less impactful.

Overall, The Rivals of Amziah King goes above and beyond the standard for mass produced Hollywood dramas, but isn’t immune to some of its most common pitfalls. A great film for fans of beautiful heartfelt stories, bluegrass music, the honey industry, or just Matthew McConaughey.

The Rivals of Amziah King opens in cinemas August 20th. For tickets and more info, click here.

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