The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)
IMDb rating: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 95%
This feel-good buddy comedy sees two unlikely allies becoming friends as they go on the run, journeying to the destination that will make all of a young man with Down syndrome’s dreams come true – a wrestling school down south.
Zak (Zach Gottsagen) lives in a residential care home, but his plans for the future see him on the world stage. He believes that his destiny is to become a pro wrestler, and to achieve his dreams, he needs to get to a top wrestling school. He busts out of his care home and meets up with the outlaw Tyler (Shia LeBeouf).
Tyler agrees to help Zak make it to the school, but he wasn’t counting on Zak’s tenacious carer, Eleanor (Dakota Johnson), who intercepts them on their journey, and begrudgingly joins them.
This movie is by the producers of Little Miss Sunshine, and it won the Audience Award at SXSW in 2019. Times (UK) says, “Like a Disney family drama from TV times past, this feelgood road movie is so homely, so warm and fuzzy, and so darn wholesome that it’s almost too much.” Critics have universally praised the movie’s charms, despite (or perhaps because of) it’s leaning towards a fuzzy-feelings kind of corniness.