The King of Staten Island  ★★★½

YOU may have seen American comedian Pete Davidson before.

He isn’t well known in Australia, being mainly a stand-up performer, but that’s about to change.

Davidson stars in 2020 comedy-drama The King of Staten Island, directed and co-written by one of the most successful comedy creators around, Judd Apatow.

Along with Waves and Babyteeth, it’s one of the best films currently on offer at cinemas.

As well as being pretty funny, it has a heart-felt story at its core that impacts without becoming overly-sentimental.

Davidson plays Scott Carlin, 24-year-old high school dropout who lives with his mother Margie and sister Claire on Staten Island, one of New York’s poorer areas.

Scott is an interesting, darkly funny guy but lacks direction and motivation. Most of the time he seems to hang around with a small group of friends, play video games and smoke a lot of dope. His only future vision is an idealistic one of opening a tattooing studio/restaurant.

Scott’s father has been dead for seven years. A renowned firefighter on Staten island, he perished trying to rescue people from a burning building. Scott acts like it’s no big deal, even making jokes about it, but he is also clearly of the opinion that firefighter should not have children because they are happy to die and leave them.

After his sister leaves home for college his mother Margie (Marisa Tomei) starts dating a new man who just happens to be a firefighter. Suffice to say, Scott and Ray (Bill Burr) initially do not hit it off but gradually some kind of relationship starts to form.

I liked this film a lot, particularly because I knew beforehand that it was semi-biographical, Davidson having lost his own firefighter father in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Apatow, Davidson and Dave Sirus wrote the strong screenplay which is full of constant one-liners and, during its more serious moments, maintains a voice of authentic human interaction and response.

Davidson is enigmatic in the lead role and Burr, an actor I’m not familiar with, does a great job as the man trying to understand and connect with Scott while pushing him to deal better with life.

We all know or have known a guy like Scott, which makes The King of Staten Island even more engaging.