A movie about two typical teenage boys—boys with parent troubles, girl troubles, and friend troubles. But rather than work through their troubles in tried-and-true teen-movie fashion, The Kings of Summer's beleaguered protagonists grab a nerdy sidekick and take to the woods, determined to build a new life on their own terms. While the film's T-shirt-clad protagonists could've waltzed out of Stand by Me, the let's-build-a-house-with-our-hands escapism reads like the daydream of a stressed-out adult who's tired of waking up with his iPhone pressed against his cheek. It is not, in other words, a particularly plausible teenaged adventure, or a particularly compelling one. by Alison Hallett