The Folksy Charm of ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’ Surprises and Uplifts

The Folksy Charm of ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’ Surprises and Uplifts

By Lynn Venhaus
In “The Rivals of Amziah King,” bluegrass, beekeeping and backwoods buddies keep this folksy fable brimming with surprises – with its twisty story, distinctive characters and strong sense of community.

In his first film in six years, Matthew McConaughey charms effortlessly as the title character. Convincing with his warm smile, deep drawl, and caring demeanor, Amziah is obviously beloved in this weathered patch of Oklahoma. A proponent of hospitality, potlucks and jam sessions, he dispenses poetic wisdom, surrounded by a fiercely loyal crew of eccentrics, misfits and lost souls.

Through superb cinematic storytelling, writer-director Andrew Patterson, whose impressive debut 2020 film “The Vast of Night” was an engrossing sci-fi thriller, has crafted a lived-in world that ebbs and flows with an entrancing Southern rhythm.

With its layered natural look, the cinematography by M.I. Littin-Menz and editing by Patrick J. Smith distinguish this film.

Owen Teague and Matthew McConaughey playing bluegrass.

Yes, it meanders, sprawling in a messy way, but it’s never not true to its roots. The message of integrity, tenacity and shared values strikes a chord in a fascinating found-family tale. Patterson’s on-the-nose metaphors are meaningful – the beehives are as captivating as communities as King’s devoted ragtag inner circle.

The homespun story unfolds in an unhurried fashion and is rich in noteworthy details. An unorthodox river heist is a marvel of ingenuity and determination while King’s tasty tour of dishes at a potluck, revealing the cook behind each recipe, is authentic in its ‘truth or a lie” sage advice.

Of the film’s many highlights, the breakout performance by Angelina LookingGlass as Kateri, who once stayed with Amziah and his wife Glenda when they were foster parents, is a heart-tugger. After Glenda died, Amziah was no longer able to foster youths and Kateri went back to her biological mother. They meet again, and it is kismet. He takes her under his wing as an apprentice, and she’s an unswerving protégé, with an interesting mystical side, too.

Other supporting characters are memorable. Jake Horowitz is street-smart and resourceful fixer Remmick, Scott Shepherd is mush-mouthed eccentric Chimmy, Cole Sprouse is fast-food worker Oat with super-sleuth skills, and Bruce Davis is savvy state investigator Sunderland. 

Kurt Russell as Dob McCoy.

In a brief but pivotal role, Kurt Russell is Dob McCoy, a slick powerful agricultural bigwig who oozes good ol’ boy charm.

Playing music are Rob Morgan as right-hand legal counsel Rippy; Owen Teague as rugged former Marine and fiddle player Pirate; and Tony Revolori as newcomer Colmar, among others.

The toe-tapping music soundtrack is sublime, with songs written by Erick Alexander and produced by T Bone Burnett. The joyous “Quill,” sung during a kitchen jam session with Ben Hardesty, is a standout.

While one can quibble with its thick aw-shucks characters that could lean towards cartoonish if they weren’t so genuine, what Patterson has created has a deeper emotional connection. His use of roots music to tell a tale about roots among people and towns is deftly delivered.

Amziah King demonstrates to Kateri how the hive reacts to the queen bee.

King says “Ain’t no one all bad or all good” and that’s the approach Patterson took writing these colorful characters. It gets a tad unsavory in the final third, as a revenge crime drama takes over.

McConaughey, the charismatic Oscar winner in his first big-screen role since “The Gentlemen” in 2019, is as magnetic as ever. (OK, he did “The Lost Bus” in 2025, but that was a streaming release, and his voice work in the “Sing” movies doesn’t count). The movie is reminiscent of his 2012 “Mud” – about a tight-knit community in rural Arkansas, and has a crowd-pleasing quality, like “The Peanut Butter Falcon” did in 2019.

McConaughey has a sweet, earthy chemistry with LookingGlass, and she lights up the screen when called upon to help save the business.

“The Rivals of Amziah King,” which premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival, has all the makings of a summer sleeper hit, in the same way that “Hell or High Water” became a big August surprise in 2016. At a recent Saturday matinee, the theater was packed with senior moviegoers, which was sweet music to my ears, much like this film.

“The Rivals of Amziah King” is a neo-western crime drama written and directed by Andrew Patterson and starring Matthew McConaughey, Angelina LookingGlass, Owen Teague, Jake Horowitz, Tony Revelori, Scott Shepherd and Kurt Russell. It is rated R for language and some grisly images and the run time is 2 hours 10 minutes. It opened in limited release Aug. 14 and will be released wide on Aug. 21. Lynn’s Grade: A-.

‘You Hurt My Feelings’ Is a Drama That’s a Bit Too Mild-Mannered

‘You Hurt My Feelings’ Is a Drama That’s a Bit Too Mild-Mannered

By Alex McPherson

Breezy, funny, and insubstantial, director Nicole Holofcener’s “You Hurt My Feelings” provides its ensemble ample room to flex their comedic chops, but remains emotionally limited by a low-stakes narrative aiming for profundity and arriving at something less than revelatory. 

Set within our dying planet in the bustling metropolis hellscape of New York City, “You Hurt My Feelings” revolves around Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a middle-aged author and teacher at The New School, who, all things considered, lives a pretty-damn-privileged existence. She has a new novel coming out — two years in the making — that she’s having trouble getting off the ground due to an unenthusiastic agent. It’s the follow-up to her moderately successful memoir that spotlighted her father’s verbal abuse, which instilled a huge layer of insecurity. 

She’s sarcastic and judgy, but enjoys a happy marriage with her husband, Don (Tobias Menzies), a somewhat burnt-out therapist whose clients — played by real-life spouses Amber Tamblyn and David Cross, plus Zach Cherry in peak straight-faced hilarity — are becoming increasingly fed up with his lack of engagement and “results.”

Their 20-something son Eliot (Owen Teague) is an aspiring playwright working at a weed dispensary, frequently annoyed that he feels like a third wheel around his parents. Beth’s sister, Sarah (Michaela Watkins), is a jaded interior designer with a sardonic wit. Her brother-in-law, Mark (Arian Moayed), is an actor with dreams of fame and fortune struggling to secure roles beyond a small part in a “pumpkin movie.”

Arian Moayed and Michaela Watkins

Suffice to say, everyone in this little circle is self-doubting, seeking validation and reassurance from those close to them. Our heroine, Beth, is particularly vulnerable. When she and Sarah overhear Don disclosing to Mark that he doesn’t like her newest novel and can’t stand reading draft after draft of it, Beth spirals — putting her marriage at risk as she grapples with this bombshell revelation.

Over the course of a 93-minute runtime, Beth gains greater understanding of how the “little white lies” we tell each other aren’t always that bad, along with how (shocker) we shouldn’t let our work or other’s reactions to our work define us and our well-being.

With Louis-Dreyfus inhabiting her character with an anxious, believable energy, “You Hurt My Feelings” remains an appealing watch, as Beth and company navigate rocky waters of communication and come to realizations that gently inform their existences going forward. This reflects life, in a sense, as some people change and some don’t, but the film still lacks heft. By the end, it takes a surprisingly light touch to its flawed characters, saying little of significance in the process.

That’s not to say the experience of watching “You Hurt My Feelings” isn’t enjoyable, though. Holofcener’s dialogue crackles with snarky wit, as Beth bumbles her way around NYC – casually critiquing plenty of people along the way, sometimes in offensive fashion. Beth herself, whether she realizes it or not, strategically deploys truths and little white lies in her day-to-day life — whether it’s half-heartedly volunteering at a church clothing giveaway to feel like a “good person,” to feigning interest in her students’ off-putting story ideas. 

Louis-Dreyfus sells Beth’s outwardly bubbly nature and conceitedness, friendliness belying a lack of self love and belief in her own abilities as a creative. Her mother, Georgia (the always excellent Jeannie Berlin), perpetuates Beth’s anxieties through humorous passive-aggressiveness.

Beth trusts Don more than anyone else, however, so his seeming “betrayal” hits her like a wrecking ball, which Louis Dreyfus neither undersells nor overplays; if anything, the film would have benefited from a more cartoonish expression of her panic. As it stands, it’s difficult to connect with her concerns: they’re monumental to her, but as outside observers, they seem trivial, and Holofcener never dives deeply into her background or creative drive to establish real pathos for her plight. 

She loves Don and Don loves her. Of course Don wants to be a supportive husband, of course he wouldn’t tell her his true feelings about her writing (which we’re never led as viewers to believe is actually praiseworthy), as he recognizes that his opinions are ultimately irrelevant: he’ll support her no matter what. This is evident from the outset, and, with some late-movie platitudes lacking nuance delivered by Teague (doing the most with a clichéd character), renders the core conflict of “You Hurt My Feelings” fairly shallow and predictable.

Aside from Beth’s unwarranted stressors, “You Hurt My Feelings” explores other facets of this idea, as people in her social bubble navigate similar waters of honesty and dishonesty, truth and lies, in their personal and professional bonds. Don, stressed about aging and exhausted from a string of demanding clients while putting on a brave face (which Menzies embodies with subtly-calibrated mannerisms), avoids admitting to his cataclysmic falsehood. This doesn’t pan out well, but guess what? Communication is key, as usual.

Sarah encounters her own challenges — her whole job involves appeasing finicky clients with artwork to adorn their homes, smiling and gritting her teeth, with plenty of unused insults at the ready under her breath. Mark struggles to find meaning and work as an actor, while Sarah stands behind him through thick and thin, notwithstanding she doesn’t think he’s all that good all the time.

Boosted by Holofcener’s zinger-filled screenplay and patient editing that zeroes in on expressions and awkward pauses, “You Hurt My Feelings” depicts these situations with a crowd-pleasing touch, but that doesn’t excuse that they aren’t all that compelling to watch in the first place. Indeed, the film’s muted style and inherent softness misses opportunities to critique its characters on a more foundational level, not fully selling their problems nor Beth’s gradual gaining of self-awareness. It’s not all that dramatic, or relatable, as we (im)patiently wait for the characters to catch up with reality.

Perhaps I’m the wrong demographic for this story, and perhaps the film’s lack of spectacle is the point, but it remains slight, less a meaningful story than a batch of gently amusing scenarios in service of relatable yet obvious messaging.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

“You Hurt My Feelings” is a 2023 comedy-drama written and directed by Nicole Holofcener and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Owen Teague, Michaela Watkins, Arian Moayed, David Cross, Amber Tamblyn, Zach Cherry and Jeannie Berlin. It is rated R for language and runtime is 1 hour and 33 minutes. It opened in theaters May 26. Alex’s Grade: B-.