Movie review: The Peanut Butter Falcon
This slice-of-life, Mark Twain-style adventure comedy-drama may make you feel like eating warm peanut butter on toast.
Zak (Zack Gottsagen) is a 22-year-old man with Down syndrome who has been living in a nursing home for three years and counting. Unable to quell his urge for a better, brighter future, he breaks out to pursue being a wrestler like his idol, The Salt Water Redneck (Thomas Haden Church).
Zak’s almost childlike innocence and ambition will take you back to your days of simple dreams, but luckily for him, he meets Tyler (Shia LaBeouf), an unlikely candidate who helps him realise them.
Hot on Zak’s heels is a nursing home caregiver (Dakota Johnson), whose ensuing internal struggle with her treatment of and behaviour towards Zak throws another thought-provoking wrench into the plot.
The onscreen camaraderie between Tyler and Zak is truly heartwarming, though the depths of the characters’ respectively turbulent paths - some more troubled than others - could have been explored in greater detail and complexity.
If you are looking for a feel-good film that lauds the overdue representation of humankind in all its shapes and forms, The Peanut Butter Falcon is the way to go.
SCORE: 3.5/5
Rating: PG13
- LYDIA GAN
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