King of the Hill

It would be a kids' film but for a few mature moments. Interesting to see the Depression juxtaposed with the innocence of childhood, similar to The Florida Project. Good cast of characters made the neighborhood believable. Didn't care for the feel good ending. Fav scene: dinner party at Katherine Heigl's home.

One of Soderbergh's best. Like a mixture of Spielberg and Barton Fink. The quick and heartbreaking shattering of childhood innocence in the Depression era. Fantastic performances from the whole cast (loved seeing Spalding Gray), with Jesse Bradford being very impressive. It's a very warm and resonant film. You could think the ending is a copout but I saw it as a relief.

solid drama

With the story centered around a kid trying to survive under difficult circumstances, it does really manage to push in the point of personal struggles. The main character is not perfect and is built in a way that gives the viewer time to understand all their quirks. It did feel a bit too slow and drawn out for me at times, though, so I wasn't 100% into it. It's still a decent movie from a director that usually goes for entirely different moods.

The warm grading and expensive look of the film are just some sleight of hand for Soderbergh to land his morbid payoff. I wish the ending wasn't so tidy.

Takes us into the experience of growing up with food, housing, and parental insecurity during the depression. Despite the considerable hardships of several characters, it also somehow manages to show positivity and not be acutely depressing.

Adrian Brody before he was famous. Interestingly, Brody and Bradford had worked together in a film a year earlier called The Boy Who Cried Bitch.

A very competent piece technically (lots of Coen brothers in its DNA), but the whiplash between carefree twee childhood and straight-up morbidity (this kid is eating pictures of food!) is more jarring than enlightening.

Lovely and intriguing film, good protagonists and environment. The score and camera work make it especially enjoyable and mellow.

No propane and propane accessories found here, just pain and pain accessories

An excellent story about a young boy during the depression who is left to fend for himself by circumstances. Jesse Bradford does a find job acting and is quite young in this, as is Katherine Heigl. Elizabeth McGovern was a beautiful hooker. Adrien Brody was also entertaining as the older neighborhood friend. A heart warming story, as you watch the smart young boy struggle to overcome poverty, loss and hunger while waiting for his father to return home.

May very well be the warmest film Soderbergh ever made, but despite a score that sometimes gets too cute/jaunty and what appears to be a pretty typical coming-of-age story on paper, this isn't just some sentimental period piece. Soderbergh is keen to show the hardship and pain inherent in the story, and there's more darkness and ambiguity than you might think. Not a particularly ambitious film but one with a lot of craft and heart.

Great feelgood movie, with some dark sides. A boy against the world! Loved the performances of Brody and Krabbé. Not boring for a second and actually an instant LEGENDARY movie! How can you not be impressed? Soderbergh's masterpiece!

I guess it's competently made - not necessarily bad as such - but I just couldn't connect with it. There was some interesting characterisation going on but it's largely ignored in favour of a more standard plot. It's done well but I found it uninteresting - and it had so much potential, with the inclusion of Spalding Gray or the protagonist's imagination. Unimpressed and disappointed by what could have been a very sharp film but what is instead by-the-numbers.

It occurs to me to wonder if, when pitching this film, the director was in the middle of explaining the ways in which it was to be a blistering critique of poverty and inequality when, suddenly, he paused, and announced, in a kind of epiphany, "But you know, at the end of the day, this is a movie about hope." As seems the norm with this filmmaker, his intelligence means that obvious pitfalls are avoided, but no great heights are reached either. Still, there's something affecting about it.

A moving Depression-era drama, about a kid (Bradford) that gets essentially left on his own without any help. It's a pretty easy drama with the subject, but Soderbergh helps it out with the strength of his shots behind the camera.

83.250

King of the Hill is little-seen and underrated and nothing like anything else in Soderbergh's oeuvre. Yet it's a fantastic film all the same.

Very entertaining with great display of talent all round.

Soderbergh gets at the enveloping hopelessness of the Great Depression without getting too pushy. He just tells the story with shrewd writing and elegant shot construction. The acting slips a little here and there, but in all other respects the execution matches the sterling intent. It's not one of Soderbergh's better known works, but it's a splendid evidence of his value and importance as a filmmaker.

Competent, but there's not much here

O inventor de ilusões estreava há 30 anos nos EUA. Tinha apagado inteiramente da memória e o revisitando pude constatar que é um dos trabalhos mais sólidos do Soderbergh, o Jesse Bradford, então com 14 anos, carrega o filme nas costas. RARBG.