Peanut Butter Falcon, the Audience Award in Narrative Spotlight winner at the SXSW Film festival tells the down-to-earth adventure story of Zak, a 22-year-old man with Down syndrome who’s stuck in an elderly home. As well as fisherman Tyler (LaBoeuf) who finds himself in a wild feud with angry crab fishermen from whom he stole their catch. The unlikely pair is forced to work together when Zak, after escaping from the care facility, hides on a boat that Tyler uses to escape from the fishermen. Zak and Tyler embark on a bonding journey towards Florida to fulfill Zak’s life long dream of attending the wrestling school of his idol Salt Water Redneck and becoming a professional wrestler.

The Peanut Butter Falcon is written and directed by the creative team Tyler Nilson and Micheal Schwartz in their directorial feature debut. It stars Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, and Zack Gottsagen as the main protagonists. This marks Zack Gottsagen’s first feature film performance after writer and director Tyler Nilson discovered the actor at a camp for actors with disabilities and decided to write a story designed especially for him.

LaBoeuf and Gottsagen seem to click well together, which is integral for such an intimate and personal story like this to work. The film has some great moments that feel original and honest, but not all the way through. At a point towards the end of the second act, it starts to tick off the Hollywood plot point boxes and ends rather abruptly. I appreciate the trust in an emotionally intelligent audience because any other Hollywood film might have resorted to a voice-over narrator to explain the essentially obvious plot, and thus making the audience seem incapable of reading emotions themselves. But The Peanut Butter Falcon doesn’t rely on this lazy narrative element.

I especially enjoyed the muted and green-toned color palette which brings out the constantly changing landscape. The camera work is well done and both staging and blocking are conceived in a way that helps convey the story and emotional beats well. This becomes apparent in every scene Dakota Johnson is in as they visually establish the dynamic of the trio in a subtle but effective way.

One aspect that did not work and felt superfluous was the angry fishermen Duncan and Ratboy’s dedication to hunt down and kill Tyler. It felt a bit excessive and over the top. Even though the story has magical moments, they never cross the line to fantastical, it tonally shifts whenever there was another fishermen scene. In my mind, the story would have worked even better without that spectacle of the eventual explosive confrontation between Tyler and the fishermen. However, it was the initial and to an extent seemingly the main drive to keep LaBoeuf’s character moving, which wouldn’t have happened if there was no big conflict when he initially stole their catch that forced him to run away from his home like Zak did.

Should I watch this movie? It’s a great film to watch for anyone who wants to see an uplifting, emotional story that is able to pull on your heartstrings. The main reason I’d recommend it, is Zack Gottsagen’s performance alone, simply because it’s the best performance I have seen from an actor with Down syndrome and is a real delight to watch.

★★★⋆☆

The Peanut Butter Falcon is an adventure movie about friendship and fulfilling your biggest dreams against all odds. It shines the brightest through the performances of Gottsagen and LaBoeuf but falls victim to a rather predictable plot in the latter half and an abrupt ending that prevents it from being a truly great film.

Release Date (Switzerland): 20.01.2020

Release Date: (Australia): 30.01.2020

Film Data: Director: Tyler Nilson Michael Schwartz - Writer: Tyler Nilson Michael Schwartz - Cast: Shia LaBeouf Zack Gottsagen Dakota Johnson John Hawkes Thomas Haden Church Bruce Dern Jon Bernthal Yelawolf Jake Roberts Mick Foley - 97’ - USA - 2020 - Distributor: Impuls Pictures

Photo and Video Source: © Impuls Pictures AG. All Rights Reserved.