The story is not groundbreaking and, certainly, this type of cliché, coming-of-age film has been told before and will be again, but this one makes for a great addition to the genre.

| Aug 6, 2018

Its slight stuff, sure, but King Jack is a film thats executed with smarts and sensitivity.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2017

[Director Thompson] has a particular ally in Plummer, a bashed-up presence more compelling than a dozen stage-school brats, displaying a fortitude you warm to even as you're watching all cockiness being kicked from his form.

| Dec 31, 2016

It's an elegiac, dreamy little film, and catches perfectly the passing madness of the teenage state.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 5, 2016

Dark coming-of-age movie has intense, sadistic bullying.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 16, 2016

Though Thompson clearly has a facility with young actors, as nearly every performance in the film is very good, it's not enough to save the film from mediocre clichés and poor dialogue baked into the script.

| Jul 12, 2016

Might not have the freshest ingredients in the indie kitchen, but it still knows how to stir up something with a kick.

| Original Score: B | Jun 18, 2016

... steers away from clichés and cheap sympathy, and instead resonates with raw authenticity.

| Jun 17, 2016

The debut feature of Felix Thompson is an assured coming-of-age drama.

| Original Score: B | Jun 14, 2016

This directorial debut proves to be one quite delightful surprise: funny, touching and real.

| Jun 13, 2016

Thompson's leads are so natural in their roles, and his filmmaking is so immediate and intimate, that King Jack is instantly absorbing.

| Jun 10, 2016

Lacking personality or insight, "King Jack" is a ho-hum tale of young aggression-been there, bruised that.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 10, 2016

Thanks to a strongly rooted lead performance by Charlie Plummer as a 15-year-old small-town kid who's well on his way to a stint in juvenile detention, "King Jack" still strikes a resonant chord.

| Jun 9, 2016

King Jack is an emotional coming-of-age story that doesn't shy away from the lumps and bruises of pseudo-adulthood.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 9, 2016

For everyone who ever had a close call as an adolescent and kept it from the grown-ups, "King Jack" will hit you where you live.

| Jun 9, 2016

First-time writer-director Felix Thompson demonstrates good instincts for two of King Jack's standard three acts.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 9, 2016

Writer-director Felix Thompson's first film is a sensitive and self-possessed debut that clocks in at 76 minutes and doesn't waste a single one of them.

| Original Score: B | Jun 7, 2016

It's a tribute to Thompson's humane sensitivity to character detail that its concluding jolt of affirmation feels fully, inspirationally earned.

| Jun 7, 2016

An exceptionally powerful coming-of-age story that pairs the charm and heart we've come to expect from the genre with some especially intense and brutal drama.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 6, 2016

The name Felix Thompson is to be added to lists of up-and-coming directors to keep an eye on.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 6, 2016