We Are Kings is an independent film directed by Toby Hubner that is family friendly and includes a wonderful original soundtrack. The movie takes place in the fictional town of Moon, Mississippi home of a struggling juke joint called “The Blues Bucket.” It is here that the story of I.B. King and his wife Lilly King, played by Atlanta blues musician Sammy Blue and jazz vocalist Rita Graham, unfolds. Both Blue and Graham give a wonderful performance of an elderly Black couple in love with each other and the music that brought them together. Unfortunately for the couple, the bar goes into foreclosure due to a predatory loan and Lilly suffers a stroke.
I.B. must then take a long road trip to Chicago for a promised recording deal that ultimately falls through. Drunk and hopeless, he passes out on a cold and lonely road next to his beat up RV nicknamed “The Blues Bucket.” He is rescued from freezing to death by two fellow lost souls in music, Dustin Ladue and Layla Knuckles. I.B.soon takes in the hapless pair played by musicians Jonathan “Boogie” Long and the 2006 winner of the TV show “America’s Got Talent,” Bianca Ryan. The trio is later joined by a runaway teen named Sam, played by Atlanta rapper Pryce Watkins.
We are Kings spans the whole range of age, race and humanity that is bound together by music. What the characters go through in the movie is something the audience can relate to. There is music in We Are Kings for everybody to enjoy and 95 percent of it is all original and new, which is uncommon in many blues-related movies. The stars of We are Kings had the opportunity to use their music and ideas in the movie, bringing the soul of the blues to the young and old.
[jwplatform uf0kF62l]
