Five years before Pete Davidson's reign of terror
Colin Jost put on his chef hat and heated up his pot. “Let’s see… I’ll start with a base broth of Superbad: A virgin and a curly-haired joker crash one last party to try and get laid, with unprofessional cops hanging around. Next comes a few scoops of Adventureland: An Ivy League kid is stuck at a dead-end summer job full of doofus coworkers. That gives us the consistency we need, but let’s add some Project X as seasoning: a party shot to emulate the feeling of being on molly as the climax. And for garnish, we’ll pull in an ingredient that’s aged and fermented nicely, The Flamingo Kid, for its chlorine color palette and New York location shooting. Let it simmer until it reaches a B-minus level of execution, serve with overqualified comedians in supporting roles, and you’ve got yourself a satisfying summer cuisine.”
Jost, the Saturday Night Live comedian known for marrying Scarlett Johansson and having a handsome but punchable face, clearly called in some favors to make Staten Island Summer. Lorne Michael produces the film, and a bunch of SNL vets appear. Just as Seth Rogen made a supporting turn in Superbad, Jost appears as one of the hapless cops in his film. And, like Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Superbad script, this is semi-autobiographical: Jost grew up in a Staten Island suburb with colorful locals before shipping off to Harvard (…where he roomed with Pete Buttigieg! I bet they had an NPR poster on their wall!).
Staten Island Summer is funny. That’s the most important factor for a film like this. The yuk ratio. It’s pretty high; I probably let out an audible laugh, like, 30-50 times. No small achievement! Not every gag is a winner. (Despite some similarities, it is not, indeed, Superbad). But plenty are. For example, one runner that works every time is Fred Armisen (usually my least favorite part of whatever he’s in) as a Hispanic maintenance worker declaring an escalating war against a wasp nest.
The core cast is fine. Graham Phillips is a big slab of nothing as the protagonist Danny, but he rarely brings the material down. Better to be a low-effort non-addition than a try-hard, unfunny subtraction. Zack Pearlman does a decent Jonah Hill impression as co-lead. He’s got some good deliveries. (It’s a better performance than Oliver Cooper’s analogous turn in Project X, at least.) Bobby Moynihan always brings his A-game even if he’s a utility player. Ashley Greene from Twilight brings some nice vibes as the older girl that Danny yearns for — I wish she had been cast in some more indies before retiring to the straight-to-DVD and Hallmark ecosystems. She could’ve done numbers in Sundance-core dramedies.
The biggest delight for me among the cast is John DeLuca as the dopey beefcake lifeguard. He’s a Teen Beach Movie alum, so you know I’m going to have a soft spot for him. But he clicks here. He’s not a savant-level comedian or anything, but he has a great ability to blend with the ensemble, stealing the spotlight at the right moments but fading back as the moment requires, too. He’s another actor I’d really like to see in more stuff. (He’s outrageously fit here, too.)
When the film pivots towards the more earnest material, it doesn’t land as much as it would like to. But then again, the faint stabs at character arcs and relationship development are what give this more shape than your average quick-and-dirty comedy, like one of the American Pie direct-to-DVD schlock flick.
I give Staten Island Summer the most contextual and conditional of recommendations: it is not a revelation, but if you’re looking for the kind of movie this promises to be, a frothy R-rated teen comedy, then it delivers. It’s got just enough flavor with Colin Jost’s autobiographical bent, the on-location Staten Island shooting, and the lovely supporting cast. (I didn’t even mention Gina Gershon playing a cougar! Holy shit, she’s great!) I laughed and had a good time, and I would gladly watch one of these a week every summer for the rest of my life.
Is It Good?
Good (5/8)
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2 replies on “Staten Island Summer (2015)”
I hope Eurotrip is another exception to that Fred Armisen rule.
Of course. I still say “mi scusi, mi scusi” in his cadence all the time.