The King of Staten Island

Director: Judd Apatow
Year Released: 2020
Rating: 2.5

Scott (Pete Davidson), an aimless twentysomething still living with his widowed mother Margie (Marisa Tomei) in Staten Island (his father died in a fire), flips out when Mom starts dating a firefighter (Bill Burr), so he tries to break them up.  The central premise is loosely based on the life of comedian Davidson (who also co-wrote the script) - he did lose his father in the terror attacks on 9/11/01 - and there's a real lived-in atmosphere to most of it (until it's disrupted by a failed drug store robbery), but the Davidson character is almost exclusively defined by the loss of his Dad - which gets brought up in almost every scene in case the audience forgets it at any point - and, like so many Seth Rogan movies, this one also has a noxious Drug Fetish (come on Pete, the world doesn't revolve around cocaine and weed).  Like many Apatow movies, the running time is a bit bloated, but the cast members make it bearable, especially Bel Powley as Pete's not-girlfriend (her accent is spot-on), Maude Apatow as Pete's sister (who plays a similar role in Euphoria) and, naturally, the great Steve Buscemi as the fire captain.