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Join us at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9 for a screening of Steven Soderbergh’s 1993 charming drama “King of the Hill.”
“King of the Hill” is the story of a 12-year-old boy who is left on his own in St. Louis during the Great Depression, and not only survives but thrives, and learns a thing or two. His parents are absent for excellent reasons: His mother is in a TB sanitarium, and his father, a door-to-door salesman, having failed to find much of a market for wickless candles, has left town to travel for a watch company.
His younger brother has been shipped away to relatives. That leaves young Aaron behind in his family’s rooms in the Empire Hotel, a transient hotel not quite nice enough to qualify as a brothel.
KING OF THE HILL | 1993 | DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh | WITH: Jesse Bradford, Jeroen Krabbe, Lisa Eichhorn, Adrien Brody, Karen Allen, Elizabeth McGovern, Spalding Gray | RUNNING TIME: 1H 43M | RATED PG-13 for thematic elements | PROJECTED IN DIGITAL 2K
“As a hero, Aaron has some of the qualities of Huckleberry Finn, David Copperfield or Oliver Twist. He’s plucky, smart, and knows his way around people. It is a sad truth that he could not survive in today’s unkinder world, but in the 1930s he finds it possible to support himself and even attend a prestigious local school, all because of his gift of gab and his genius at creative lying.
“King of the Hill” could have been a family picture, or a heartwarming TV docudrama, or a comedy. Soderbergh must have seen more deeply into the Hotchner memoir, however, because his movie is not simply about what happens to the kid. It’s about how the kid learns and grows through his experiences. It’s about growing up, not just about having colorful adventures.
“And despite the absence of Aaron’s family for much of the picture, it’s about the support a family can give – even, if it’s believed in, when it isn’t there.” — Roger Ebert
Tickets are $7.50 and include a Localist service processing fee. UM students use code UMSTUDENT at checkout for free admission.
