The Rivals of Amziah King ★★★

Amziah King (Matthew McConaughey) is a man of almost mythic proportions. Everywhere he goes, life seems to happen. People flock to him, his warmth and charisma envelop them in the heat of his internal light. Living in rural Oklahoma, Amziah owns his own honey manufacturing plant. He keeps bees, having built up many hives for “over half his life.” This is a man with a community behind him, a town that bristles with life and lights up whenever Amziah is in their midst. When the cops need some help identifying the rightful owner of stolen honey barrels, they turn to Amziah. When he needs help, everybody cuts their evenings short to rush to his side to help. He and his late wife used to foster kids, including Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass) who, through happenstance, ends up back in his life and under his wing as a protégé learning the ins-and-outs of the honey-making business. The ways in which he helps others and is helped feels so second nature as to be almost unconscious, opening his home and heart is simply something he does.

It is this spirit that makes The Rivals of Amziah King, directed by Andrew Patterson, so exciting. The first half is especially intoxicating, playing mostly as a series of interludes. Sometimes, Amziah and his band jam with some contagiously enjoyable and lively tunes. At others, he helps the police with that stolen honey barrel situation or helps a local school with a considerable bee swarm problem. Out on the town, he is the life of the party and shows Kateri the ropes, telling about the emotional truths of the town and the people who call it home. As one gets lost in the bluegrass music, radiant charm, or acidic humor, The Rivals of Amziah King can feel like a lively Coen Brothers film along the lines of O Brother, Where Art Thou? or, as it gives way into Amziah’s penchant for tall-tales and winding yarns, something like Big Fish. Even the stories that The Rivals of Amziah King shows, such as that school chaos, feel so heightened and chaotic as to play like pure fantasy, defying belief but so strange, hilarious, and entrancing that one never bothers to question their truth. They feel good and are true enough, capturing the spirit of this town in a way that only a man as perceptive and in-tune with its ecosystem like Amziah can express, but he must do in his own unique way.

Matthew McConaughey is magnetic in this role. Patterson leans on his storytelling ability and down home appeal to carry The Rivals of Amziah King’s first half. Every minute spent with McConaughey is a magnificent one. This is one of his finest performances in a career filled with great ones, providing the spirit to this chaotic flickering flame that is Amziah. He casts such a cloud over the rest of The Rivals of Amziah King that the scenes he is not in feel his absence almost too much. If a great performance can harm a film’s final appeal, then McConaughey’s fits the bill. That is not to say the rest of the cast is not impressive, as they are. In particular, Scott Shepherd shines as Chimmy, Amziah’s most trusted and experienced employee. His swamp mouth intelligibility and salt-of-the-Earth knowledge makes him into equal parts a hilarious figure – watching him step in to drive a school bus during that swarm incident is a true comedic delight – and one bristling with a worn wisdom. Angelina LookingGlass, who carries the second half quite capably and impressively for a debut performance, as well as Jake Horowitz and Rob Morgan all stand out, though the entire supporting cast succeeds in The Rivals of Amziah King’s aim of bringing this small-town to life. They all feel like their own unique parts of it, bringing color and humanity to the table.

The Rivals of Amziah King relies on shock and unpredictability. Some of its funniest scenes come from out of nowhere, while some of its bloodiest and most hectic scenes jump out and shock the viewer. There is a moment about halfway through that registers as a surprise, shifting the tone of the film. From the shaggy and laid back hangout movie/bluegrass musical of the first half, The Rivals of Amziah King turns into a more straight-laced neo-Western crime thriller. Part of what Amziah talks about in the first half is the nature of the hive, the drones, the workers, and the queen bee. Patterson structures the film around this concept, showcasing every class of bee type as a force in Amziah’s “hive”, necessitating some of this change once Amziah’s hive is shaken up. Those behind that honey theft soon come for Amziah’s business with Kateri, especially, hellbent on revenge. The Rivals of Amziah King becomes quite dark, shedding the levity and warmth of its first half for this vengeance plot. 

This mimics the way everything in Kateri’s hard life was looking up, having finally found her place in the world and the love she lacked in the foster system, only to have it be snatched away through greed and corruption. However, it becomes overplotted, tying itself into knots trying to tell this story of revenge, getting to the bottom of who is responsible, and pulling apart the forces that truly control these small Oklahoma towns. The Rivals of Amziah King shines in its lived-in, slice of life beat, and when it shifts to being a more conventionally told story with a structured narrative, it loses the charm and the qualities that make it stand out. There are some saving graces, especially a scene of Kateri and one of Amziah’s old employees, Remmick (Jake Horowitz), on a mission to try to recover some of Amziah’s stolen property and talking about this larger-than-life man. Nevertheless, the second half mostly drags, harshing the mellow the first half created and ensuring The Rivals of Amziah King ends leaving the viewer feeling immensely frustrated.

Patterson and cinematographer Miguel I. Littin-Menz take an interesting approach to shooting The Rivals of Amziah King. Frequently relying on close-ups, slow motion, and montages, it creates the feeling of these characters and moments slipping out of a dream. They are shimmering, gorgeously lit by the background sun and engulfed in that glow. It is like cherished memories one is trying to hang onto, playing in one’s mind and allowing the viewer to linger on the feeling these scenes create. This is especially true as Patterson and Littin-Menz go heavy on the slow-mo as Amziah shows Kateri the hive for the first time or as Kateri sees Remmick walking toward her. Framed from Kateri’s perspective, there is a wonder and awe in spending those moments with Amziah and a longing and love in the look she has for Remmick. These moments, occurring in that slow-mo, have a marvelous energy that enraptures the viewer and invites one to melt into that feeling.

The first half of The Rivals of Amziah King is excellent, but the second half is just fine. The lively interconnected series of episodes in Amziah’s life and this small town he calls home that make up the first half make way for a dark revenge Western in The Rivals of Amziah King’s second half to its detriment. The aim of director Andrew Patterson is evident, as this is a film that leans on the flow of daily life, both in the highs and lows. However, as Patterson ditches the loose structure of its first half for a tighter approach in the second half, The Rivals of Amziah King’s loses its charm and creates the feeling that one is watching two different films spliced together.