The Peanut Butter Falcon Review (Tragicomedy, 2019)

The movie "The Peanut Butter Falcon" is a tragicomedy production.

IMDB rated the movie with 7.0/10. According to Google Users - 94% of the people watched the movie liked the story.

Director: Tyler Nilson, Mike Schwartz

Actors: Shia LaBeouf, Zach Gottzagen, Dakota Johnson, John Hawks, Bruce Dern, John Burntal, Thomas Hayden Church, Mick Foley, Jake Roberts, Wayne Dehart

The Peanut Butter Falcon has been produced with the budget of Budget: $ 6.2 million, Worldwide fees: $ 22.8 million.

By the way, here is the peanut butter itself - terrible muck. Recognition of the cat Bagel

Zach Gottzagen - Really My Hero! Confession of the Bagel Cat

Twenty-two-year-old zak (Zak Gottzagen) has Down syndrome. His family refused him, and the government placed him in a shelter for poor old people in North Carolina. He's a smart guy, and he's not going to be locked up in four walls all his life. Once to try to escape he was helped by an old lady from the shelter, to whom he gave his pudding for it, the second time - his roommate (Bruce Dern), a former engineer. The second attempt was a success: he really ran away and began to hide in someone's old boat. 

The owner of the boat - a certain Tyler (Shaya LaBeouf), a thirty-year-old loser, very worried over the death of his brother Mark (John Bernthal). He does not have a license to catch crabs, so he works in the workshops of the fishing pier and periodically steals crabs from the traps of other fishermen. At some point, the fishermen he steals beat Tyler, and he burns the entire pier in revenge, damaging twelve thousand dollars.

Tyler is chased by fishermen, he runs away from them on his boat and finds a hidden zack. The boat very quickly falls into disrepair, Tyler is going to make his way to Florida, and he asks for it: on the way to Florida, there is a school of the famous wrestler Salt Redneck (Thomas Hayden Church), the videotape of which is looked up to the holes. The guy dreams of going to school and becoming a wrestler. 

Tyler at first is not going to take zack with him but realizes that he will simply disappear without him, so they begin to travel together. 

At the same time, Tyler continues to be chased by very unfriendly fishermen and is looking for a volunteer from the shelter Eleanor (Dakota Johnson), who in the shelter cared for zack. She wants to get him back in the shelter. 

***

For directors Tyler Neilson and Mike Schwartz this debut - the first feature film to which they themselves wrote the script. The project was aimed at the main role of zack Gottzagen, who played the title role here: Neilson and Schwartz, after meeting him, realized that they wanted to make a film with him. 

The picture was very warmly received by viewers and critics (96% of positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes), it collected a decent box office (the box office success rate - 3.6).

In style, this is a perfectly typical, made for the Sundance Festival. There's an infinitely lonely main character, obsessed with a pipe dream, there is a random travel companion with his problems and his cockroaches, to them at some point must join a noble girl, well, and will be a kind of buddy-movie in pursuit of a dream with elements of adventure Huckleberry Finn, only instead of a runaway negro Jim here - a young guy with Down syndrome, and instead of the Duke and the King - two almost nameless fishermen, chasing the duke and king. 

There will be some funny jokes, awkward situations, colorful characters that meet during the trip, and in the end should expect a kind of catharsis, although everything is sure to end well. 

The most difficult moment in this film - an actor with Down syndrome, playing a character with Down syndrome. There are directors who are tempted to use people with problems to enhance the emotional response of the audience. But fortunately, this does not happen here. The filmmakers show him not an unhappy man to be pitied, but a man to be respected for his determination, perseverance in the struggle for freedom and determination.  

It also clearly shows the difference between Tyler and Eleanor.

The girl is very good to zak, but he is for her - sick and disadvantaged, like those old people in the shelter, which she cares for. But Tyler doesn't think he's sick. The dispossessed, yes, but he's about as destitute as Tyler. And Tyler treats him not as a sick man, but rather as his little brother. (Especially since he himself lost his older brother.) He's messing with him, coaching zack, fooling around with him, and he's living a full life with Tyler. And even Eleanor, who at first believes that he needs to be returned to the orphanage, because he will not be able to live a normal life, eventually understands Tyler's rightness. 

The actor himself is absolutely amazing.

Feeling sorry for him as a person who has suffered very hard in this life, quickly gives way to sympathy and respect. He turned out to be a very bright, lively, and sincere character, indeed - the main star of the film. I hope that after this picture, especially given her good reception, he will have a good acting career - he is quite worthy of it. 

About the game Shaya LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson in this case to say almost nothing - I, for example, did not even understand that Tyler - Shaya LaBeouf, and learned about it only after watching the film. However, this is not a claim to LaBeouf and Johnson, rather the opposite: they acted very nobly, because their roles should not have distracted the attention of the audience from zack Gottzagen. Therefore, they rather serve as a background and serve replicas, especially since purely scripted their characters are written rather carelessly. 

Of the secondary characters very good Thomas Hayden Church as a retired wrestler and blind preacher Jasper John, played by Wayne Dehart. 

The script.

This is the weakest point of the film. Neilson and Schwartz previously wrote the script only for the short "Diary of a Mopedist." The script for the first feature film turned out to be somewhat raw and unfinished, containing obvious script edits. 

First of all, it is absolutely incomprehensible the act of Tyler, who is kind of like a positive character, but at the same time robbed other fishermen - also, in general, almost beggars poor - and then completely deprived them of their livelihood, burning the pier with all the contents. It looked kind of wild. I expected to the last that at the moment of another sincere conversation with Eleanor he would explain it somehow, but no explanation was followed. 

According to the film, we should consider the fishermen driving Tyler thugs, and it is written in the announcement. But what kind of thugs are they? Unhappy fishermen, that's all. And they snarled him at the beginning of the film completely for the cause, because he robbed their traps. 

In the picture a lot of frank stamps, in the production also there are certain shoals, but here, of course, much redeems the main character, so especially niggle to the film do not want - because of how here treated to a very difficult topic and because of the unconditional social significance of such a picture. 

That's how the movie turned out. With an unfinished script, a somewhat uncertain production, but quite sincere, not manipulative, which I usually can not stand, and most importantly - with an excellent main character, causing sympathy and respect. And the wonderful zak Gottzagen in this picture, many of its flaws completely redeems.