King of the Hill (1993 film)

King of the Hill is a 1993 American drama film written and directed by Steven Soderbergh. It is the second he directed from his own screenplay following his 1989 Palme d'Or-winning film Sex, Lies, and Videotape. It too was nominated for the Palme d'Or, at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot
Based on the Depression-era bildungsroman memoir of writer A. E. Hotchner, the film follows the story of a boy struggling to survive on his own in a hotel in St. Louis after his mother enters a sanatorium with tuberculosis and his younger brother is sent to live with an uncle. His father, a German immigrant and traveling salesman working for the Hamilton Watch Company, is off on long trips from which the boy cannot be certain he will return.

Cast

 * Jesse Bradford as Aaron
 * Jeroen Krabbé as Mr. Kurlander
 * Lisa Eichhorn as Mrs. Kurlander
 * Karen Allen as Miss Mathey
 * Spalding Gray as Mr. Mungo
 * Elizabeth McGovern as Lydia
 * Cameron Boyd as Sullivan
 * Adrien Brody as Lester
 * John McConnell as Patrolman Burns
 * Amber Benson as Ella McShane
 * Kristin Griffith as Mrs. McShane
 * Katherine Heigl as Christina Sebastian
 * Lauryn Hill as Elevator Operator

Reception
In her review in The New York Times, Janet Maslin says, "The film does a lovely job of juxtaposing the sharp contrasts in Aaron's life, and in marveling at the fact that he survives as buoyantly as he does."

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 91% rating, based on reviews from 33 critics with an average score of 7.8/10, the site's critical consensus reads: " A subtle, affecting, character-driven coming-of-age story, King of the Hill is one of Steven Soderbergh's best and most criminally overlooked films."