Joey King makes movies better

At least these two particular movies

In my last post, I wrote about how I like to theme my movie viewing, and here’s one of the most recent examples of that: Putting two movies together with Joey King.

Until this year, I wasn’t very familiar with her - according to IMDB, one of the projects she’s most known for is The Kissing Booth movies on Netflix, and that particular trilogy isn’t my jam. However, I had seen her in two Warner Bros. franchises - she was in The Conjuring, playing Christine, one of the young daughters along with Mackenzie Foy, who would go on to be a young Jessica Chastain in Interstellar. And I bring that up because King also worked for Christopher Nolan, playing the young Marion Cottillard who escapes from the pit in The Dark Knight Rises.

at small but memorable part suggested King had a striking physicality to her, and two of her latest projects bear that out, with her turns in Hulu’s The Princess and in Bullet Train, playing in theaters. I decided to watch them close together.

She stands out so much in both of these movies that she’s better than each movie as a whole. Bullet Train has, not unreasonably, been accused of being a Tarantino pastiche, not unlike that glut of Pulp Fiction wannabes in the 90s - movies with clever titles like Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, in which the cleverness does not go beyond the title. And believe me, Tarantino pastiches are not a uniquely 90s phenomenon. Ben Wheatley’s 2016 warehouse shoot-em-up Free Fire stranded a great cast amid a fusillade of bullets.

Bullet Train at least has a pulse, due partly to propulsive direction by David Leitch, whose credits include Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2. Yes, the movie is smug and entirely too self-satisfied. It’s made up almost entirely of surface pleasures that aren’t nearly as cool as the filmmakers think they are.

And yet, I found myself diverted by it, largely because of King. She plays one of the many assassins on the plane, one who can look schoolgirl innocent one minute and deadly the next. I won’t give away her backstory, but King’s character has a lot of layers, suggesting an inner life that’s more resonant even than that of Brad Pitt, who brings a lot of weary “I’m not even supposed to be here today” energy to the movie. King intrigued me more, and I found myself wishing the movie were more about her. It’s no small feat when you can outshine Brad Pitt, a Tarantino veteran, no less.

King is front and center in The Princess, which has a pretty simple concept: said princess is being forced to marry her kingdom’s dastardly new ruler while her family is held hostage. King will have none of it, laying waste to a horde of villains, having been trained in martial arts.

Like Bullet Train, The Princess gives off Tarantino vibes, being more than a little like Kill Bill, especially part 2. And as she does in Bullet Train, King rises above thin material, making this direct-to-streaming effort a lot more entertaining than it otherwise would be. Again, her intense physicality absolutely sells the movie.

I get the sense that neither Bullet Train nor The Princess showcase King to the fullest of her abilities, but she shows a hell of a lot of potential. I’ve heard Hulu’s miniseries The Act, for which she was Emmy nominated, makes better use of her talents. I look forward to seeing the movie that rises to that level.