‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’👍

“My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call.”
― Pat Conroy
The Prince of Tides

When I finished watching The Peanut Butter Falcon over the weekend it reminded me of seeing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off the Friday it hit theaters back in 1986. In that I greatly enjoyed both and while the titles seemed wonky at first—after seeing the movies the titles now seem perfect.

It would be hard not to see traces of Forrest Gump and Rain Man in The Peanut Butter Falcon, but I also felt a little bit of a nod to some of my favorite road movies The Straight Story, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and even Smokey and the Bandit. (Not a spoiler, but one of the destinations in the movie is Jupiter, Florida where Burt Renyolds grew up, opened a dinner theater, and eventually died. Oh, and an old Trans Am makes a cameo.)

And sprinkle in some Mark Twain, Pat Conroy, and Flannery O’Connor with a side of O Brother, Where Art Thou? and I’ve either confused or intrigued the uninitiated about this movie.

I’ll do some research on the film and write a string of posts on it next week. But check it out on Amazon Prime if you haven’t already seen it. It picked up Audience Awards at the SXSW Film Festival (2019), the Nantucket Film Festival (2019), and Crested Butte Film Festival (2019) among other awards.

If you think that streaming services are swimming in “a sea of sameness” check out what the writing/directing team of Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwatz pulled off along with Zack Gottsagen, Shia LaBouf, and Dakota Johnson. And smaller roles with John Hawkes and Thomas Haden Church totally captivated me.

I’m sorry I missed this film when it was in theaters, but maybe nine months into a global pandemic was the best time to see it. And I only know a little about the backstory of how the film got made, but it’s an equally solid story. More on that next week.

How did I miss this film? This could have been a bad After School Special, or a good little regional film, but with a stellar cast it really is elevated to a remarkable film with many wonderful moments.

Scott W. Smith is the author of Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles