Directors: Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Zack Gottsagen, Dakota Johnnson, John Hawkes, Bruce Dern, Jon Bernthal, Thomas Hayden Church, Mick Foley, Jake "The Snake" Roberts
Running Time: 98 minutes
Rating: PG-13
★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)
Watching a film as simple and magical as The Peanut Butter Falcon is a reminder how often lesser movies with more tools at their disposal work to complicate things. It's easy to imagine nearly half a dozen versions of this same story, told in far clumsier ways, lacking the vision and intelligence that first-time writer/directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz bring to it. When you say something is "feel-good" or "inspirational" that implies a lot of baggage most movies, indie or not, just aren't capable of carrying. This one carries it, subverting the potential cliches that come with a synopsis cynical audiences would likely be picking apart before they've seen the end result.
While it's been frequently and accurately described as a modern Twain-like fable in the vain of Huck Finn, it's greatest attribute is that it tells a straightforward story about real people in a certain section of America well. That may seem like a complete distillation, but it's transformative on its own terms. And in considering that, you can't help but be reminded of Ebert's mantra of a movie not being what it's about, but how. In this sense, it emerges as sort of a Fargo companion piece, wherein a completely different genre and setting, it accomplishes that same goal of absorbing us into its world and the everyday rythms of these characters' lives.
There's a scene midway that's essentially a baptism of sorts (in the movie's unusually offbeat way) and it's impossible not to view it as one, for both the film's audience and its actors, two of whom exit as different performers than when they went in. Or at least, emerge again as the performers we always knew and hoped they could be if just given the right material. Add to that a third performer making his acting debut who's as real as it gets since the filmakers supposedly made this for him, their friend. But we soon realize it's the other way around, with his performance ranking amongst the most wonderously engaging of the year.
Zak (Zack Gottsagen) is a 22-year-old with Down syndrome living in a retirement home in North Carolina. With dreams of becoming a professional wrestler, he obsessively watches tapes of his favorite, the Salt Water Redneck (Thomas Hayden Church), whose wrestling school he's determined to attend. After staging many failed escapes, with the help of his roomate Carl (Bruce Dern), he manages to sneak out of the home in the middle of the night, leaving his care worker and friend Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) in a panic.
Zak's okay, but hiding out in a small boat owned by troubled fisherman Tyler (Shia LaBeouf), who's getting harassed by Duncan's (John Hawkes) gang of dangerous crabbers determined to make him pay for stealing from them and burning their equipment. A very reluctant Tyler eventually agrees to take Zak to the wrestling school on his way down to Florida, but they're being tailed, both by Duncan's gang and a determined Eleanor, tasked by the care facility to bring Zak home. As they sail North Carolina's Outer Banks en route to the school, Tyler bonds with Zak, even training him for his potential wrestling debut. But Eleanor has other plans, and isn't quite on board with the 22-year-old experiencing the independence Tyler has granted him on their journey.
Despite being a story that bucks convention and logic, it's brought to the screen in such an honest, no-nonsense style by Nilson and Schwartz that you rarely stop to consider any contrivances or manipulation. If those exist, it's pulled off so seamlessly that you'd hardly even stop to notice or care. It's just an enjoyable ride from start to finish, spent with two characters who develop this symbiotic friendship in which each has as much to learn from the other. And, if anything, LeBeouf's Tyler gleans more, starting their journey traumatized by the accidental role he had in his older brother Mark's (Jon Bernthal) death.
That traumatic event has pushed Tyler down the wrong path in a major way, but the unexpected arrival of Zak couldn't have come at a better time, as we slowly watch LaBeouf transform this troubled thief into a mentor and de facto big brother of sorts. Say what you will of the actor's off-screen troubles, but between this and the past year's far darker, but similarly affecting autobiographical Honey Boy, he's experienced a true resurrgence in 2019, channeling those challenges into deeply felt performances another actor without his history wouldn't have brought as much to.
While not a moment rings false between Zak and Tyler, the appearance of Eleanor to bring him "home" allows the script to commentate on, but wisely not bludgeon us with, the issue of how much autonomy 22-year-old with Down syndrome should have. While he clearly doesn't belong in an old age home where he's nearly asphyxiated with structure, an equal argument can be made that the situations Tyler puts him in are dangerous despite going a long way toward building his self-sufficiency as an adult.
The great thing about Johnson's Eleanor is that she isn't presented as anyone less than having Zak's best interests in my mind. It's his spirit and determination that she still has to fully come around on. Much like LeBeouf, so much of Dakota Johnson's roles have been predictated on making her a "star," that's it's stripped away the early promise she showed as a character actress in projects like Fox's short-lived sitcom, Ben and Kate, and even her single memorable scene in The Social Network. Funny, sarcastic and likable, this brings her back to that, playing an everyday person questioning life while wearing her heart on her sleeve. It's neither complicated or showy, much like the material itself.
When they do eventually reach Zak's destination and come face-to-face with the Salt Water Redneck, it isn't what you'd expect. Rather than attempting to shoehorn the story into a pro wrestling atmosphere, the script seems to do the exact opposite in drawing that world into the one presented here, helping make its third act an unqualifiable success. There's a real believability trickling down from Thomas Hayden Church's frighteningly accurate turn as washed-up grappling veteran to the wrestler cameos from Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Mick Foley, who fit so seamlessly into this that anyone unfamilar with either would think they cast two Florida locals in the roles.
Between the folky, bluegrass soundtrack and swampy settting, this is a film that very much exists in its own universe, yet one likely recognizable to everyday life for those residing in it. Whereas a lesser effort would go completely off the rails with its ending, the filmmakers know how unneccessary that approach would come off, instead only choosing to show only what's important, crediting its audience as smart enough to fill in the blanks. We don't need to know everything, or have our hands held throughout, as it most powerful moments rest less on what we see than the reassurance these three characters will remain together and be okay. With a high rewatch value, it's hard to imagine anyone disliking The Peanut Butter Falcon, making for an excellent indie film case study on just how much can be accomplished with what on the surface could have easily seemed to be very little.
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