The First Step Is Kidnapping. They Never Get to Step Two.
Nothing prepared me for a trailer where a mattress store employee plots a fake kidnapping to win over his crush—and somehow, that might be the sanest part of California King.
Vertical has just dropped the trailer for California King, an unhinged crime comedy that straddles the line between dumb and genius like a drunk tightrope walker. It stars Travis Bennett (yes, Taco from Odd Future), Victoria Justice, and Joel McHale, and it's got the DNA of a movie Hollywood stopped making: think Superbad meets Pineapple Express, but if the characters took life advice from Reddit threads.
The setup is deliciously absurd. Perry (Bennett) manages a mattress store in a deadbeat California town. To impress the girl of his dreams, he and his best friend cook up a scheme that's equal parts dumb and desperate: kidnap her brother, “rescue” him, and come out the other side looking like a hero. Shockingly, it doesn't go to plan.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: this trailer doesn't just tease a comedy. It hints at a revival.
What California King Gets Right: Dysfunction as a Love Language
At first glance, it's easy to dismiss California King as another indie trying too hard to be quirky. But pay attention to the details—the trailer pulses with what critics might call “post-ironic sincerity.” A genre once bloated with Judd Apatow knock-offs (looking at you, 2013) is getting a reboot.
Director Eli Stern, making his feature debut, leans into chaotic charm. There's grit under the jokes and awkward chemistry between Bennett and Justice that actually feels believable—because it's so aggressively not polished. That's what makes this interesting. The characters aren't likable in the traditional sense. They're desperate, flawed, and impulsive—like a lo-fi version of Breaking Bad if Jesse Pinkman's big idea was mattress-based heroism.
It's not trying to be deep. That's why it might be.
The Historical Echo: Comedy's Offbeat Resurgence
Let's be real—Hollywood's recent comedies have been struggling to find their voice. Big-budget studio comedies cratered in the late 2010s. Remember when Game Night (2018) felt like a last gasp for smart ensemble farce?
But a shift is brewing. Indie studios like A24 (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and Neon (Ingrid Goes West) have proven there's still hunger for weird, bold comedy—just not the kind squeezed into a Netflix algorithm.
California King, in all its stupid-genius glory, is part of this. It doesn't care about four-quadrant appeal. It knows its audience: fans of midnight movies, dark comedies, and chaos with a beat.
Would You Fake a Kidnapping for Love? Comment Below.
California King hits VOD and select theaters on April 25. It might bomb. It might be brilliant. Either way, it's swinging hard—and in a cinematic landscape still playing it safe, that's worth celebrating.
You'll either love this or hate it. But if the trailer's anything to go by? You won't forget it.
