King of the Hill

King of the Hill (1993) is Steven Soderbergh's coming-of-age drama, available to watch online on iFILM. Set in St. Louis during the Great Depression, it follows twelve-year-old Aaron — a boy with a vivid imagination and empty pockets.

His family is coming apart piece by piece. His mother is sent to a sanatorium with tuberculosis, his little brother is shipped off to relatives, and his father, a German immigrant working as a traveling watch salesman, vanishes for weeks at a time. Left alone in a run-down residential hotel, Aaron learns to bluff the manager, hide his hunger behind pride, and invent a richer life than the one he's actually living. Jesse Bradford carries the film, with young Adrien Brody and Katherine Heigl in early roles.

Soderbergh adapted A. E. Hotchner's memoir into something unusually warm for him, arriving right after the chilly Sex, Lies, and Videotape. The Depression plays out through a kid's eyes, where eviction and an empty stomach are just the next puzzle to outsmart. Stream King of the Hill online on iFILM.