Barefoot on the reeds. Review of The Peanut Falcon
"The Peanut Falcon" could have become a walk-through tear-maker about the "dream come true" of a guy with Down syndrome, but instead directors Mike Schwartz and Tyler Nilson gave out an emotionally mature, awakening the brightest feelings, full-blooded buddy movie with adventure, friendship, fooling around, romance of the high road and the charm of provincial America. This film is easy to miss in the stormy stream of premier giants, but like "Barefoot on the pavement" or "1 + 1", sooner or later it will find you and resolutely grab you into its arms.Zach (Zach Gottzagen) is a 22-year-old boy with Down syndrome. He lives in a nursing home, but wants to escape from there. Not because he is offended, on the contrary, Zach has real friends here, but because he is attracted by a dream. He is determined to go to the school of wrestlers of Salty Redneck, his idol and legendary bully from an old videotape, watched by Zach a million times. Zack also dreams of becoming a wrestler, and one day, with the help of his over-aged roommate and a bottle of liquid soap, he still manages to hit the run. In his underpants, absolutely defenseless, but full of determination, he rushes headlong towards his dream. However, real life quickly drives him into shelter - under the tarpaulin on the boat of the tramp and Tyler's drunkards (Shia LaBeouf). They make a cool boy friendship and now they are already walking together through the reeds and corn fields in the direction of the wrestling school. Meanwhile, in search of the fugitive, a pretty nanny Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) leaves. She must return her ward to where, in the opinion of the guardianship authorities and most of the inhabitants, he belongs.  Despite the fact that the entire film is well tailored from familiar and easily calculated plot moves and is not innovative either in form or in content, it will not be possible to resist its charm. For starters, you will fall in love with every crank from this almost fabulous wilderness with its rivers infested with alligators, dashing sweaty rednecks and forest madmen. The old lady dandelion, who helped Zach to give a pudding for a chocolate pudding, a mischievous grandfather from a gas station who wholeheartedly treated a bearded man with a shotgun to homemade liquor, an obscure blind preacher who gave our heroes his last junk - each of them evokes emotion and a desire to cope with their own health grannies. But terribly touching in his awkwardness, straightforward and sunny Zach victoriously outshines them all.  It was for him that Schwartz and Nielsen invented this story - at that moment, when they saw a radiant boy in a production at an acting camp. They wrote a script for him and did not even think of inviting another (read - professional) actor for the main role. Zak himself was supposed to be the star, and he became her: Mr. Gottzagen's instagram is bursting at the seams from an endless stream of love and words of support from fans from all over the world.A guy with a smile that distributes warmth like a Wi-Fi to everyone, indiscriminately, will steal your heart and will systematically warm it up throughout the timing. Zach, both the hero and the actor, is like the Joker in reverse. If Arthur Fleck is a slap in the face, picking sores and needles under his nails, then the future wrestler, nicknamed the Peanut Falcon, personifies such necessary and desired hugs. The mention of this role of Joaquin Phoenix is not here for the sake of a catchphrase: if not for the Oscar, which academics owe to the genius actor since the time of The Master, Zach could have been sent for the statuette.  LaBeouf, on the other hand, put so much emotional power into his seemingly unpretentious image of a tramp with a load of unbearable pain behind his shoulders that even his gaze, caught from under his cap, scratches the screen like a gramophone needle on vinyl records. Tyler has become a pleasant gift from the filmmakers to everyone who knows what it is like to pack your whole life in one backpack and sincerely enjoy a sip of free moonshine and the smile of a stranger. Zach, who is an actor, plays like a child - all wide open and without sin for his soul. Shia, who is the star of von Trier's "Transformers" and "Nymphomaniac", plays like an adult - with a tense nerve and fantastic reflection.  At the same time, the authors of the film showed their skills not only in creating convex portraits of old people and eccentrics. And a drama with an actor with Down syndrome could not do without important words. But, what is great, they fit into one tiny but extraordinarily convincing dialogue. When Zach, in a conversation with Tyler, complains that he will never become a hero, because he is special, Tyler replies that, in general, we are all, in some sense, special. You just have to find what you are good at, and not dwell on what bothers you.  And it turns out that "Peanut Falcon" is not a movie about a guy with Down syndrome with an actor with Down syndrome in the title role. It is about the fact that everyone can have their own "syndrome", we are all special and that is why we are equal: in our capabilities, in our dreams, in their realization. Someone is made different from others by a disease, someone is made by a bad character or unconventional appearance, but no one is trying to put the first in the “house of assholes”, and the second in the “house of freaks,” and ultimately there are no sterile ordinary people. Special or not, to become a hero, you just need an open heart, faith in a dream and a good friend. The Topic of Article: Barefoot on the reeds. Review of The Peanut Falcon. |
