I have to admit to being a sucker for coming-of-age stories and I suspect that my wife is as well. Since The Kings of Summer is one such film that made it into some lists of most notable films of last year, this was sufficient reason for me to want to watch it.

Considering that it garnered decent but not spectacular reviews and its director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is a complete unknown, my expectations were modest. Still, I found the film to be underwhelming. That’s not to say that it’s bad. Performances are solid all around, production values are appropriately slick and there are some decent ideas. Most of all, there is an endearing enthusiasm on the part of the director that shines through and an entertaining sense of fun.

Unfortunately as earnestly as it tries, it’s just not good enough. The central friendship between the two boys fails to convince, the director overuses montages, causing the film to sort of drift around, the jokes are just slightly off and so on. Perhaps its greatest failing is that it is too fearful of venturing into serious territory and so lacks conviction and heart. It even shies away from portraying the true difficulty of building a house in the woods from scratch, preferring to focus on how much fun the boys seem to find in it, which hardly seems believable.

At only 90 minutes in length, at least it doesn’t overstay its welcome and it’s certainly well made enough to entertain and keep your attention for that long. Ultimately however, this is a superficial, very light piece that is quickly forgettable. You wouldn’t be missing anything if you skip it.