The Peanut Butter Falcon

THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (12)

D: Tyler Nilson & Michael Schwartz

Roadside Attractions/Armory/Lucky Treehouse/Bona Fide/Endeavor (Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Christopher Lemole, Lije Sarki, David Thies & Tim Zajaros)

US 🇺🇸 2019

98 mins

Drama/Comedy

W: Tyler Nilson & Michael Schwartz

DP: Nigel Bluck

Ed: Kevin Tent & Nathaniel Fuller

Mus: Zachary Dawes, Noam Pikelny, Jonathan Sadoff & Gabe Witcher

Zack Gottsagen (Zak), Shia LaBeouf (Tyler), Dakota Johnson (Eleanor), John Hawkes (Duncan), Bruce Dern (Carl), Jon Bernthal (Mark), Thomas Haden Church (Carl, The Salt Water Redneck)

The Peanut Butter Falcon is Mark Twain-esque adventure, tailored specifically for its lead actor, Zack Gottsagen, who has Downs Syndrome.

Raised in a state care facility, 22-year-old Zak has aspirations to be a professional wrestler and meet his hero "The Salt Water Redneck". He escapes from the home and befriends a wayward fisherman who is on the run from a beating.

The two men form a bond as social worker Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) tries to track them and return Zak to the care home.

I always think it's a risk when people with real 'disabilities' are given starring roles in films, as the films can often come off as mawkish, despite having the best intentions (Simon Birch is a perfect example of this), but The Peanut Butter Falcon works incredibly well, is tastefully done and the screenplay is both insightful and funny. All the performances are fine, especially Gottsagen in the lead, whilst Shia LaBeouf has proven himself to be a very good character actor, far removed from the terrible Transformers movies.

7/10