‘Kings’ Trailer: Halle Berry Deals with Family Turmoil During the L.A. Riots

Last year, racial tension was tackled in the 1960s-set drama Detroit as riots unfolded in the Michigan city, sparking a confrontation between citizens and the law during a time of great turmoil. Now, a new drama takes us to the Los Angeles riots in 1992.

Kings tells the story of Millie (Halle Berry), a single mother with eight children, and some of them aren’t even her own. But she takes it upon herself to give them the best home that she can, even if it brings a little craziness into her neighborhood and drives her next door neighbor Obie (Daniel Craig) a little crazy. But there’s turmoil on the horizon after the Rodney King beating trial pushes racial tension to its breaking point, seemingly putting Millie and her family in danger out on the streets.

Watch the Kings Trailer

While it looks like this movie is full-on about the struggle of a family to survive in the middle of what is essentially a race war, our review from TIFF says otherwise. Marshall Shaffer caught the film last fall and wrote, “Kings never really engages with the L.A. Riots beyond showing some archival footage of the Rodney King trial on the television.” While director Deniz Gamze Ergüven calls attention to the riots, our review notes that she “never takes the next step to probe the impunity of police or examine structural racism as Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal did in Detroit.”

While the time is now for more movies that call attention to the issue of racial relations in the United States, Kings doesn’t seem to be doing any of the heavy lifting. As Shaffer also notes in our review, “The film’s worst sin is not that it’s a middling movie. It’s that it adds nothing to an urgent and ongoing dialogue.” But clearly some critics at the festival liked it, so maybe it’ll be worth checking out this spring.

Here’s the official synopsis of Kings from when it premiered at TIFF:

Millie (Berry) is a hardworking single mom with a soft spot for strays. When Kings begins, she already has eight children living in her house and will soon bring home another. Her neighbor Obie (Craig) is the local loose cannon, and the only white man in an area largely inhabited by African Americans, Latinos, and Koreans. With racial tensions running dangerously high, Millie and Obie would appear to be unlikely allies. Yet following the acquittal of four of the officers accused of beating Rodney King, these two must navigate the gathering chaos in the city to bring Millie’s kids home safely.

Kings hits theaters this spring on April 27, 2018.

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