THE RIVALS OF AMZIAH KING is one odd mashup of genres and tones. It’s an indie comedy, hangout movie and series of banjo jams, but also a crime and revenge thriller. For a while it’s almost too cute and wholesome, but it ends up a little too harsh and ruthless. There are many laughs, a few shocks, plenty of heart. Despite the title it’s not based on a book or short story. It’s filmed in Alabama but set in Oklahoma in an industry one character refers to as “the bee arts.”

Matthew McConaughey (THE PAPERBOY) plays the title character, a charming beekeeper with many friends he plays music with in community centers, living rooms, and a drive-in barbecue joint. (There are songs by the Avett Brothers and Ben Hardesty, if that means anything to you.) After an opening song that makes it seem like it’s gonna be a musical, police approach him for help identifying the source of honey found in a stolen truck. It becomes sort of a procedural about Amziah and associates spitballing how to melt down the wax in a barrel of honey overnight, but before they can even start there’s a ridiculous/horrifying industrial accident and suddenly he’s at a hospital comforting a newly disfigured friend-of-a-friend he just met and made fun of (Tony Revolori, SCREAM VI). And that’s not the most drastic shift in the story.

When Amziah stops at a diner near the hospital his waitress is Kateri (newcomer Angelina LookingGlass), a young woman who was his foster child for about two years when she was 8 or 9. He’s delighted to see her and convinces her to come work for him on the bee farm. A big chunk of the movie is watching Kateri’s wide eyes and smile as this eccentric goof shows her around, coerces her to sing in a living room jam, teaches her about honey. There’s a ton of footage that appears to really be the actors covered in bees; if they didn’t go full CANDYMAN they sure made me believe they did.

I read that Denzel Washington was an earlier choice for Amziah, which is hard to imagine, because it turned into such a pure McConaughey role. Even when he’s doing a pretty dumb shtick about the stories behind each dish at a potluck you can’t help but think oh, that Amziah. Everybody loves him. The charisma gets you before you find out what a great guy he is with these foster kids and his genuine love for Kateri and then when you find out how many people he’s helped by hiring ex-cons and other misfits on his farm. A saint and a scamp at the same time, and always making me laugh.

I’m gonna mark this a SPOILER just in case I imply anything by saying I don’t want to say too much. I appreciate the changes in plot and tone that made me say “I didn’t see that coming.” It turns into a mystery investigation with Kateri trying to locate stolen honey, advised by Amziah’s lawyer Rippy (Rob Morgan, CUT THROAT CITY) and incarcerated employee Jimmy (Scott Shepherd, HOSTILES), who’s indecipherable on our end (sort of the same joke as Boomhauer on King of the Hill). Mostly the second half feels less comedic than the first half, but it’s very heightened in the lengths she goes, what she’s capable of, and the speeches she makes about it. There’s a beautiful stretch where it becomes a buddy movie about Kateri and Amziah’s former employee Remmick (Jake Horowitz) trying to clandestinely transport a huge supply of honey and bees down a river. It really does become WAGES OF FEAR/SORCERER/THE WEIGHT for a bit.

The character Kateri and the newcomer who plays her are both captivating. There’s obviously some significance to this quiet young Native woman having to take over the movie from the celebrated white man and rising to the occasion something fierce, but writer/director Andrew Patterson knows he doesn’t need to underline it too much. I believe the only mention of her heritage is in a scene where she makes a joke that could possibly be a reference to ON DEADLY GROUND, and then Remmick admits his only knowledge of “Native stuff” comes from Disney’s POCAHONTAS.

There are some really tricky tonal moves that will lose some people. For me one of the later ones doesn’t really land. I think maybe it’s meant as a joke for Kateri to turn as gangster as she does just to rule the local honey business, but LookingGlass has such a sweet presence and we’ve grown to care about her character so much that a couple of the things she does don’t sit right for me. For the most part I like that there’s some darkness thrown into the mix (some hot honey, if you will), but to me certain parts are more upsetting than I think is intended. The ending feels like a triumph that doesn’t know it’s a cautionary tale.

But whatever bumps there may be on the road it’s quite an interesting drive. I wanted to see it because I saw some rave reviews, but I found the title annoying and the trailers really couldn’t communicate what it is. I’m not sure I could either! And it’s exciting to see a movie this undefinable.

I could compare some aspects of AMZIAH to David Gordon Green, and little hints of BOTTLE ROCKET, but I think Patterson has something really unique here. This is only his second movie, following THE VAST OF NIGHT (2019), which had a similarly vocal following when it was streaming on Amazon but I understand is lost media until Patterson finishes a blu-ray. That’s a sci-fi movie, so I don’t know if it has a similar feel or not.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Patterson tried to make it quickly after his first movie, basing it around resources he had, like a friend’s honey plant. But then there was the pandemic and the strike and some sort of a post-production fight with producers (which he declines to talk about in that interview, except that he won), so it’s been years. Production company Black Bear Pictures has made many Oscar nominated films, but has struggled in their efforts to branch into distribution. I haven’t seen Guy Ritchie’s IN THE GREY, but their other previous releases were CHRISTY, SHELTER and TUNER, all largely ignored movies I really liked. And now this one.

Oh well. Either people will hear about it now that it’s on video, or if they watch the Independent Spirit Awards (I’m guessing). I’ll look forward to Patterson’s next one and whenever I get to be watching some movie or show and say  “oh shit, that’s Angelina LookingGlass!”