Tina Kakadelis
If I had two nickels for every time I saw a film that was actually a folk-rock musical about redemption during SXSW, I’d have two nickels. That’s not a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. The first film was O’Dessa, a folk-rock musical opera that’s the sort of epic odyssey we don’t see backed by studios anymore. The second is as much of an enigma as the first. The Rivals of Amziah King, which premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival, is about the fight to keep a beekeeping legacy alive, accompanied by folk music.
Amziah King (Matthew McConaughey) has spent his life building his beekeeping and honey business. He spends his days tending to his bees and his nights at the local fast-food restaurant playing music with his buddies. It’s the kind of life people dream about, a laidback existence doing the things you love. While out to lunch, Amziah runs into Kateri (newcomer Angelina LookingGlass), one of the kids he briefly fostered with his now-deceased wife. Kateri works as a waitress at the diner, but Amziah offers her the chance to work for him. The two grow closer, but a threat looms that could ruin life as they know it. Someone is going around town stealing bees, and it seems like Amziah’s hive may be next.
Six years ago, writer/director Andrew Patterson released The Vast of Night. It was a small-scale film about two amateur-radio-loving teens in a small town who stumble upon an alien conspiracy. It’s The Twilight Zone by way of the fast-talking, small-town world of Gilmore Girls. Never in a million years could one guess that Patterson’s next move as writer/director would be about a bee heist starring Matthew McConaughey and Kurt Russell. It’s a bizarre change of pace for Patterson, but one that, against all odds, works a lot of the time. In going to this larger-scale story, Patterson never lost the human aspect he captured so well in The Vast of Night. The relationship between Amziah and Kateri is the star of the show. Amziah never pushes Kateri beyond what she’s capable of, and he creates a space for her to grow up safely. She’s able to come into her own because of the kindness Amziah shows her and every single person around him.
It feels a little unfair to say that The Rivals of Amziah King should have been a miniseries, but it should have been. There were many natural end points, when it seemed like things were wrapping up, but the movie continued on. It’s not that the ultimate ending is wrong or that the film lost its intrigue as the runtime stretched, but the best version of The Rivals of Amziah King is either a pared-down feature or a miniseries. Some time could have been shaved off by reducing the number of recurring shots of the characters gazing off in the distance as music plays. These off-in-the-distance looks are often in slow motion and don’t fit the style of the rest of the film, nor do they work in a narrative sense. It’s as if the film pivots sporadically into music video territory, and it really knocks the viewer out of the movie.
The music of The Rivals of Amziah King has touches of pop mixed with folk and fiddle tunes. There’s one particularly staggering scene in Amziah’s kitchen when he invites all of his friends and neighbors over to play some songs with Angelina LookingGlass’s Kateri, who is adamant that she’s not a singer. Amziah won’t accept that, saying that everyone is a singer. The way he then slowly conducts this ragtag band into a soaringly hopeful song is goosebump-inducing. A later scene sees Amziah, Kateri, and other band members gathered around a table with an unnamed character belting her heart out. The few proud lovers of the cancelled-too-soon Teenage Bounty Hunters will be thrilled to hear Anjelica Bette Fellini’s vocals once again.
Every part of this review so far has likely led you to believe that The Rivals of Amziah King is a straight drama, but it’s rip-roaringly funny if you’re tuned into the dry, Wes Anderson style of comedy. The real comedic standout is McConaughey, who hasn’t been given the chance to flex his joke muscles in quite a long time. In fact, it’s been some time since McConaughey has been acting in front of the camera, unless you count those Super Bowl commercials. He’s the smooth, laidback guy we’ve all grown to expect, but McConaughey also imbues Amziah with a deep sense of compassion.
While The Rivals of Amziah King has filmmaking choices that may not ultimately work best for the film, it’s still an exciting second feature for Patterson. Between these two distinctly different films, Patterson shows that we haven’t begun to see what else is up his sleeve. The Rivals of Amziah King is a unique vision of bee-fueled redemption in the name of love.
