The Boston Globe - 23.08.2019

G6 The Boston Globe FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019

ByTom Russo
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
In the homespun dramedy “The
PeanutButter Falcon,” actor Zack
Gottsagen, a newcomerwith Down
syndrome, does capable and frequent-
ly amusing work as a young man with
colorful aspirations for pro-wrestling
glory. Shia LaBeoufalso findsa solid
outlet for his idiosyncratic tastes and
intensity, playing a troubledlaborer-
on-the-run befriendedby this stead-
fast dreamer. And Dakota Johnson is
agreeably cast as an emotionally in-
vested nursing-home caregiver fret-
ting about where fictionalized “Zak” is
headed,geographically and other-
wise.
For all of its engagingperformanc-
es, this thoughtful yarn from the film-

makingtandemof Tyler Nilsonand

Michael Schwartz is limited by a

quaintly straightforward story line.

Every choice the characters opt for, ev-

ery bit of self-discovery they make, is

as scripted as a rasslin’ baddie’s fold-

ing-chair cheap shot.

From Zak’s driven vantage point,

the biggest obstacle keeping him from

the ring is that he’s beencast off in an

old-timers’ home,in the care of staff-

ers disinclined to let him simply run

away. Withthe help of one especially

wily patient (Bruce Dern,part of a nif-

ty supporting ensemble), Zak eventu-

ally does make his getaway, exhilarat-

ed but at somethingof a loss. He

knows his destination:a wrestling

academy hyped on old VHStapesby

circuit legend the Salt Water Redneck

(ThomasHaden Church, entertain-

inglydroppingdown a couple of oc-

taves to WWE huskiness). But how the

heckto get there,a journey that in-

volves traveling the length of North

Carolina’s picturesquelyshotOuter

Banks?

Meanwhile, Tyler (LaBeouf) is

making a getaway of his own,fleeing

somefishermen(notably John

Hawkes, of “Deadwood”) who’ve got a

brutallyseriousbeef with him.When

Tyler discovers Zak hiding in his skiff,

his instinct is to ditchhim.But as the

unlikely pair ultimately stick together

and bond, they establishthat Tyler,

like Zak, is what the wrestling crowd

wouldtab as a hero.(He’s a passable

trainer, too.) Tyler can play it as drawl-

inglygruff as he pleases,and Zak can

adoptthe fiercest, Skippy-smeared

persona he can dream up — they’ll al-

ways still be the good guys.

Publicity for “Falcon” teases the ac-

tion as a contemporary riff on Mark

Twain, and the filmmakers’ pursuitof

this tone is clear enough, from the fel-

las’ various close-call misadventures

to theircobblingtogether of a scrap-

lumber raft. Eleanor (Johnson) catch-

es up and joinsthemfor somelazy-

hazysailing, butting heads with Tyler

before seeingpast his roughedges as

Zak does. We can see the full picture

clearly, too — so muchso, finally, that

this easygoingodyssey offers no real

surprises.

Tom Russo can be reached at

[email protected].

MOVIEREVIEW

YY½

THEPEANUTBUTTERFALCON

Writtenand directedby Tyler

Nilsonand MichaelSchwartz.

StarringShiaLaBeouf,Dakota

Johnson,Zack Gottsagen.

At CoolidgeCorner,Kendall

Square, suburbs.96 minutes.

PG-13(thematiccontent,

languagethroughout,some

violence,smoking).

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONSANDARMORYFILMS

ZackGottsagen,DakotaJohnson,andShiaLaBeoufin “ThePeanutButterFalcon.”

Wrestling with his future

In‘PeanutButterFalcon,’it’stheWWE or bust for a young manwith Down syndrome

memory or flowoff the tongue.If it
were a network show, the title would
have been quickly nixed, replaced with
something stickier such as “Minimum
Wage,” sinceit contains a strong mon-
ey-struggle theme. Here’s a tip,
though:If you can’t rememberthe ti-
tle, you can call it “Kirsten Dunst’s
show,” since it fully belongs to her.
Dunst stars as Krystal Stubbs,a
wife and mother of a babynamed Des-
tiny, who essentially decides to stop be-
ing a naïve loser. She works at a water
parkin her Florida town,whichthe
show identifiesas “Orlando-adjacent,”
and she’s stretched so thin she some-
times needs to bring the baby to the of-
fice. It’s 1992, and she and her hus-
band, Travis (Alexander Skarsgard),
are chasingan Americandream of
money and happiness, Disney-ized as
it may be. But Travis is deeply involved
in a cult — Founders American Mer-
chandise, or FAM — that is essentially
a pyramidscheme.He has to sign up
buyers for household products sold by
the cult, whose hackneyed how-to-live
tapes he listens to obsessively, and he
is eager to jumpup a level — the level
that his neurotic boss, Cody (a remark-
ableTheodorePellerin),occupies.
Abovethemall, the Madoff of the
game, is Ted Levine’s Obie Garbeau II,
who can workFAM audiences into a
frenzy with his jargon-filled speeches.
It’s all baloney, and deep down,
Krystal knows it. The ordinary people
in FAM, suchas Travis, are being
brainwashedby thoseabovethemon
the pyramid, the vampiric bosseswho

u‘‘FLORIDA’’
ContinuedfromPageG1

are taking hometheirmoney. She un-

derstands that FAM followers are se-

duced by the fantasy of wealth — but

theiraspirationswill never be met.

The showdoesn’t openlygesture to-

ward the political or the religious, but

it stealthilyserves as a metaphor. We

see financially strappedAmericans

placing theirtrust in the promises of

rich men — even if it’s not in theirin-

terest, even if those men needto keep

them down in order to rise.

The first episodestwist and turn

and ultimately put Krystal in the FAM

business, milking it as best she can.

She decides to workwithin the system,

despite its moral glitches, rather than

reject it. In a way, she is breaking bad.

We also follow the personal lives of

those around her, notably her neigh-

bor and water parkboss, Ernie (Mel

Rodriguez from “The Last Man on

Earth”), who is growing ragged work-

ing in a place where everyone is meant

to be happy. We also get a few kicky

dance sequences and an alligator skin-

ning, courtesy of the imaginations of

the show’s creators, Robert Funke and

Matt Lutsky. At one point, Cody, who is

a FAM believer of the first order, has

verbal skirmishes witha member of

another silly cult that are clever and

wonderful.

Dunst is perfect for the role — be-

lievable as a small-towngirl, as she

was in season two of “Fargo,” but also,

as Krystal takes charge of her life, intu-

itiveand driven.As she exclaims,“I

won’t be poor again,” you feel her com-

mitmentto playing the role without

any camp. When we meet Krystal, she

is wearing braces — a symbol of her

enslavement— and the scene of their

removal is a scene of liberation, as she

decides to do what she must to support

her family. As Ernie, Rodriguez is lov-

able but mysteriously disturbed by his

work;he embodies the existential

blues of 9-to-5 life. And Pellerin nearly

steals the showwith his high-strung

passion for FAM, fueled by, among

other things, his troubled relationship

with his father and mother. He’s des-

perately fronting happiness and suc-

cess but, in this plastic fantastic Orlan-

do-adjacentworld,perhapsthe truth

will out.

Matthew Gilbert canbe reachedat

[email protected]

Twitter @MatthewGilbert.

Dunst

breaks bad

in ‘Florida,’

and it’s good

PATTI PERRET/SONY/SHOWTIME

TELEVISIONREVIEW

ONBECOMINGA GODINCENTRAL

FLORIDA

StarringKirstenDunst,Theodore

Pellerin,Mel Rodriguez,BethDitto,

Ted Levine,JulieBenz,Alexander

Skarsgard. On Showtime,Sunday at

10 p.m.

Fromleft: Beth Ditto,Mel

Rodriguez,TheodorePellerin,

AlexanderSkarsgard,andKirsten

Dunst in “OnBecominga God in

Central Florida.”