Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Director: Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz
Quick Impressions:
This movie won the Narrative Spotlight Audience Award at South by Southwest, and I keep hearing friends and acquaintances rave about it, so when our hectic schedule this week moved date night from Thursday to Monday, I thought we might as well check out the heart-warming crowd-pleaser we’ve been almost seeing for months, The Peanut Butter Falcon.
I’m always happy to see Shia LaBeouf, who despite being constantly upstaged by his own inner demons has been a highly emotive and watchable actor since his childhood. And I also liked the idea of seeing Dakota Johnson star in a film. I never watched the Fifty Shades movies, so Johnson was last seen by me bickering with her mother on the red carpet (in what was surely one of the highlights of the evening for us viewers at home).
The whole supporting cast of this movie is fantastic. John Hawkes looks like he was born to skulk around fishing boats with a menacing sneer and a crowbar. (I really liked his companion’s tattoos and wondered if they were real or a clever costuming choice. As it turns out, that’s musical artist Yelawolf, so I assume the look is authentic.) Thomas Hayden Church is similarly comfortable in the guise of a mysterious pro-wrestler named The Salt Water Redneck. Bruce Dern is in every movie lately, so he’s in this one, too, as a delightfully irascible benevolent old schemer. (I feel like that’s one descriptor, a character type, hence no commas.) And rounding out the supporting cast is Jake “the Snake” Roberts! (He fights minus the snake, but I was still amazed when I saw his name pop up in the end credits. “That was Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts?????” I never even watched wrestling, but I suspect everyone who had a TV in the 1980s remembers Jake “the Snake” Roberts. I mean, his name rhymes and he’s always wearing a snake…and a menacing expression. He has a good part here that showcases his wrestling skills and gift for villainy.)
But the most noteworthy co-star, and, in fact, the biggest reason to see the movie is the actor who plays Zak (aka The Peanut Butter Falcon), Zack Gottsagen. Like the character, the actor has Down Syndrome. In the movie, the character Zak dreams of becoming a pro-wrestler, but the dream of the real-life Zack was to become an actor, and his passion inspired Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz to write and direct this film.
The Good:
The Peanut Butter Falcon‘s Huckleberry Finn vibe is fun and welcome. Our society is a mess right now. Who doesn’t want to run away? Like Jim in Huckleberry Finn, Zak is a prisoner, held against his will. He’s tired of the lack of agency in his life. He’s tired of being forced by the state to live in a retirement home. He wants a chance to live on his own terms while he’s young. And so he escapes.
Now, obviously the story differs from Twain’s beloved odyssey in that Zak is not a runaway African American slave. The two situations are vastly different in any number of important ways. But Zak is like Jim in one key way. He is being forced to live his life on others’ terms, a literal prisoner, though he has committed no crime. The only thing he’s done to provoke this treatment is to be born as himself. If he hadn’t been born with Down Syndrome, (and if his family hadn’t abandoned him, forcing him into state care) Zak would not be doing something “wrong” simply by going where he wants.
I honestly love the light this film shines on living with Down Syndrome, something so often misunderstood (even feared) by those of us who don’t have it. Ever since all the controversy stirred up by the movie Tropic Thunder, Hollywood has carefully avoided using derisive, insulting language about anyone with any kind of cognitive impairment or difference in intellectual development. But we still get few positive portrayals of people with Down Syndrome. In fact, I can’t think of any as central and as positive as Zak’s story here.
The last on-screen protagonist with Down Syndrome I remember is Chris Burke as Corky in Life Goes On back when I was my daughter’s age. Admittedly, I don’t watch a lot of TV. Surely there have been others. But the point is, we really do not see Down Syndrome both positively and realistically dramatized on the big screen very often. (We do get outside-the-box protagonists, but that’s not the same. In the 90s, we did have Forest Gump, but 1) He did not have Down Syndrome 2) His adventures were largely fantastical.)
In The Peanut Butter Falcon, Zak has an entirely plausible adventure. (I actually considered the plausibility of some of the other characters’ behavior dubious, but my husband assured me that these things could happen on the coast.) Here we see that a person with Down Syndrome can dream big, actualize plans, accomplish goals, inspire others. But far more importantly, we see that an actor with Down Syndrome can star in a movie.
And that needs to change. In the past, Down Syndrome was so stigmatized and misunderstood. Expectant parents are still made to feel anxious about the prospect and although these days, they are less often pressured to terminate the pregnancy than in the past, there’s still this idea that something is wrong with a baby who has Down Syndrome. But a simple genetic difference is just that, a difference. We all have a lot to learn about this, and what I love is that this story tells us that Zak has Down Syndrome right away, then focuses on showing us who he is and what he wants as an individual. The story doesn’t hide his differences, but what it showcases is his heart, his dreams, his talents.
But I am also happy to see Shia LaBeouf in a lead role in a hit film again because I’m genuinely saddened to see talented actors get caught in a downward spiral of self-destructive misery. (Theoretically, I should be sad to see anyone suffer, but somehow if the person destroying his or her life and career is talented, that makes it seem even worse to me.) LaBeouf is really good in this film, (as he has been in everything I’ve seen him in), and I’m curious and hopeful about Honey Boy.
(And as a huge fan of Tippi Hedren, I’m delighted to see her granddaughter appear in a movie with her Marnie co-star Bruce Dern. I wish Dern were in the movie more. Dakota Johnson’s performance is also quite good, though I have some issues with her character that I’ll mention later.)
Best Scene:
I love the scene at night on the beach, when Zak lies in the sand, cackling like a villain. For one thing, his bad guy laugh is so awesome, one of the most unexpected flourishes of his performance. One minute, he’s cackling like the mustache-twirling villain in a Victorian melodrama, and the next he’s perfectly playing a moving moment of such emotional heft. LaBeouf is excellent here, too.
Best Action Sequence:
It’s pretty hard not to get drawn into the tension of the high-stakes scene when Zak’s life is endangered by an approaching boat. Watching how differently the two men react to this moment is both enlightening and oddly satisfying.
I also love the entire interlude with Blind Jasper John (a delightful Wayne Dehart). He’s fantastic. The sequence begins to seem borderline surreal. You wonder if, perhaps, you have actually fallen into some great American novel of the South, but I absolutely love the infectious energy and musical line delivery of the performance.
Best Scene Visually:
I most remember the stealthy march through the field, though I also like the way the film reveals the heart of Tyler’s backstory almost entirely non-verbally.
The Negatives:
While I like Dakota Johnson’s performance, her character is underwritten and her story arc is awfully rushed, ultimately unsatisfying.
Zak has a beautiful, uncomplicated authenticity with motives that are easy to understand and behavior that’s totally plausible (even logical). Tyler’s behavior is not exactly logical, but given the recent trauma in his life, and the emotional turmoil he’s undergoing, we can believe that his choices are driven by passion and need. For him, the journey with Zak is therapeutic (cathartic, even). It’s about seeking redemption, processing grief, and re-establishing meaningful human connection. But what on Earth is Eleanor doing?
I can appreciate that she cares for Zak (and all the patients whose lives she touches). I can see that the person running the home irritates her, that the system frustrates her, and that Zak’s future welfare worries her.
And I can appreciate that Shia looks ruggedly masculine in the LaBeouf. But…really? The romance in this story happens so fast, and unfolds so improbably, and feels kind of shoe-horned in there to me. Plus, when Eleanor is added into the mix, the easy buddy-comedy chemistry between Zak and Tyler sort of dissipates. Their fantasy of independence is a bit messed up when Eleanor intrudes, bringing reality with her…except then reality devolves into what feels like further fantasy.
Honestly, I was with this movie until the ending, which seems so unlikely that I almost find it eerie, like a dream sequence that may or may not be reality. When I mentioned this, my husband was confident that the ending is real. But it’s an awfully convenient ending that glosses over so much. I’m not suggesting that the ending is impossible, just that it seems way too good to be true. I’m not even sure we’re supposed to be understanding that final scene as true. What if it’s just the visualization of all the birthday wishes?
For me this is more like the ending of Inception (although, for what it’s worth, I remember Christopher Nolan insisting at the time that he did not actually intend the ending of that film to be misleading or mysterious).
I find the behavior of the John Hawkes character a bit odd, too. I understand that for the LaBeouf character to be desperate and on the run, somebody must be chasing him, and I get why the Hawkes character is mad. But his solution will in no way help him recoup his losses, and also there are about twenty zillion pairs of eyes at that final gathering. I guess if I lived on the coast and were in the crab-trapping scene, I’d find this behavior less puzzling. My uneasy feeling here probably points more to my own ignorance of that world than to any actual problem with the movie.
There’s one more small thing, though this last point is less a criticism of the movie than of the movie industry (and by extension all of reality). As I see The Peanut Butter Falcon being so well received, I have this awful, nagging worry that Zack Gottsagen will get major, visible awards recognition somewhere (the Oscars, the SAGs, the Golden Globes), and he’ll be paraded all over red carpets and stages by Hollywood in typical swelling, self-congratulatory fashion, and then after this season, he’ll be offered no other significant roles, and nobody will ever see or hear from him again.
I don’t know how to address that problem (that I have just created in my imagination). Recently, babies and young children with Down Syndrome have started appearing rather regularly in print ads, television commercials, even in small TV guest spots on shows. So maybe this means that Gottsagen will indeed continue to find sustaining work as an actor.
Maybe experience has made me bitter and cynical. Maybe Gottsagen won’t be used and discarded by Hollywood at all. I’ve just seen it happen so many times. An actor with some type of difference is lauded and cheered and becomes the toast of the town, and Hollywood congratulates itself on its open-heartedness and equity, and then the next thing you know, you never hear of the person again.
Granted, there’s nothing at all exploitative about this lovely movie which is a charming showcase for Gottsagen’s talent and enthusiasm. But Hollywood is just kind of exploitative in general. Then again, maybe watching the Judy Garland movie so recently has put me in a bit too suspicious a frame of mind.
Overall: