The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019) Review
“The Peanut Butter Falcon”, from writer/director pairing Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, is a heartening tale of warts and all humanity of running from all that holds you back, into what you’ll hope will be your salvation. Contained within, is another jaw-dropping performance from the immensely talented Shia LaBeouf.
Zak (Zack Gottsagen) is a young Down Syndrome man, relegated to imprisonment in a nursing home, just barely equipped to provide him care. Thanks to the help of his roommate Carl (retired engineer Bruce Dern), he escapes from captivity into the night and right into Tyler’s (Shia LaBeouf) rickety boat. Tyler is on the run too. After receiving a beating for stealing the spoils of hard-nosed fisherman Duncan (John Hawkes at his most ruthless and brutal), Tyler lashes out and sets fire to his equipment. With Duncan and Dakota Johnson’s Carer Eleanor in pursuit - the pair must work together to get downriver to a brighter future.
Zak’s decade long aspiration to attend “The Salt Water Redneck (played with straight-faced gruff WWE ferocity by Thomas Haden Church) Wrestling School” intersects with Tyler pathway to Florida. Up until that point, the tragic events of his life had all but cauterised those feelings. Tyler (LaBeouf) is not only attempting to escape Duncan’s retribution, but he’s also trying to escape the traumatic death of his older brother Mark (LaBeouf’s “Fury” co-star Jon Bernthal). There are such beautiful touches on the journey that echo the glowing formative memories light little balls of life and light that keep him moving forward. As he continues his journey with Zak, hearing about his aspirations to become a wrestler and with his mind swimming with memories of his brother’s guidance and care, he begins to take that caring role. Zack Gottsagen’s inquisitive and blank expression allows the audience to fill in the overwhelming situation with our concerns and insecurities about this journey. When he conveys the warmth in the intimate connection with Tyler, it’s nothing short of beautiful.
“The Peanut Butter Falcon blends hope with a gritty pragmatism. One could perceive the Mark Twain - “Huckleberry Finn” - pair on the run influences as adherence to a kind of classical storytelling. Still, like Twain, it’s also a reflection of contemporary class issues. The metaphorical significance of this ‘down-river’ flight, isn’t lost co-directors/writers Nilson and Schwartz. Stunning photography snakes through vast expanses of water, traced by reeds and peppered with evidence of humanity that ages human occupation better than carbon dating. The decay of ‘public’ medical support that nurtures disability and despair is non-existent on this journey. Solace and salvation, as it were, our heroes hope is at the end of this adventure’s rainbow.
There’s a philosophy with some actors that restricting the public’s access to their personal life and controlling one’s narrative allows for greater immersion into a more diverse range of roles. Shia LaBeouf is an actor and celebrity whose very public substance issues and reactionary violence landed him in mandated rehabilitation. Before that pronounced bottom, one thing was undeniable, LaBeouf is an immense talent. Since his return, he wrote and starred in the Alma Har’el directed “Honey Boy” - a critically lauded dramatisation of the traumatic events of his youth as a young actor; and this role in “The Peanut Butter Falcon.” It’s impossible to think of another actor who could pair desperation, care and naked compassion in the way that LaBeouf delivers in this film. It’s so good in fact that when the duo of Zak and Tyler are interrupted with Johnson’s Eleanor, it could not feel more grating. It’s reminiscent of the Lee J. Cobb and Marlon Brando encounter in Elia Kazan’s “On The Waterfront” from 1954. Brando’s naturalism collides with heightened, verbose, larger-than-life capital “A” acting and scene-chewing from Cobb. They’re acting in different generations in the same moment. When Johnson walks into the scene and interacts with LaBeouf, it almost elicits the same feelings of discord and embarrassment. He’s on another plane of existence, simultaneously himself and Tyler. Johnson never seems to escape the artifice of acting.
“The Peanut Butter Falcon” is surprising, moving, funny; get aboard.
★★★/★★★★
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNl9RqjLCwc&w=854&h=480]
