Film Review: Peanut Butter Falcon Makes You Believe In Yourself
Peanut Butter Falcon is the most optimistic film I have seen in a long time. Happy endings feel rare, nowadays, in film. Moreover, when they happen, they feel big and surreal. The truth is that happiness is a series of smaller choices; ones you make to believe in yourself and love those that believe in you most.
Written and directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, Peanut Butter Falcom feels human, and, for that, relatable. Its protagonist is Zack Gottsagen’s Zak; a young man with down-syndrome, whose family left him because of his condition. This led him to be in the custody of the state and placed in and “old-folks” home in the South. Zak is miserable because he is young, sweet, smart, and eager to be a wrestler. Gottsagen’s performance is an affront to any person that believes disability is incapability. Sure, certain handicaps can take away certain functions, but, a lot of times, it is simply that you do things differently. Zak may not be able to think or talk like everyone, but he feels, dreams, and even plots to make both come true. The result is a performance that beats like a literal heart, and elevates its fellow cast of Shia LaBeouf as Tyler and Dakota Johnson as Eleanor.
The Peanut Butter Falcon | Official Trailer | Roadside Attractions
I, sincerely, believe Shia Labeouf is one of the best actors in “Young Hollywood.” He immerses himself into characters so much so that you no longer see “him.” As Tyler, he represents every good person that has had a pack of traumas and two packs of bad choices they committed after them. I’d like to say that every time something bad happens, you get back up and learn to be more positive. Yet, like Tyler, most of us get incredibly sad for awhile and even spiral with destructive tendencies. Hence, the trio Tyler makes with Zak and Johnson’s Eleanor feel adventurous and warm-hearted like, a Mark Twain novel for 2019.
Johnson gives one of my favorite performances in her blossoming career. She makes Eleanor noble and kind, but crossed as to whether a broken system can do right, at least once, by this young man, Zak. As they travel towards Florida to meet Saltwater Redneck (Thomas Haden Church), misadventures arise, but their growing love for each other sees them through. Hence, the magic of Peanut Butter Falcon is that it remind viewers: if you have someone that loves and believes in you, then you have all you need to be happy. Peanut Butter Falcon Comes Out On August 9.
