Pursuing dreams: Tyler Nilson/Mike Schwartz's sweet adventure, THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON

Yes, it's determinedly feel-good. Yes, it's not entirely (or even mostly) believable. And, yes, it's sentimental as hell. Yet THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON -- as you've probably already heard via copious PR and maybe, by now, word-of-mouth, too -- is such a sweet movie, so well-acted and often just as well-written, and full of the kind of specificity regarding character and incident that will quickly turn you into a supporter, that the film passes the "worth-seeing" test and then some.

Best of all, it bestows on one of its leading characters, a Down Syndrome young man, more multi-faceted, full-bodied, positive/negative integrity than you usually find in narratives featuring this kind of special-needs character.

The movie's writers/directors -- Tyler Nilson and Mike Schwartz, pictured at left, with Mr. Schwartz on the right -- have done just about as good a job as you can imagine of creating a low-budget-but-thoroughly-mainstream film in which much that you expect indeed happens. But it happens with enough charm, sweetness and just enough of the sour to make it palatable for intelligent movie buffs.

Plus, it boasts a very good cast -- leads to small roles -- starting with Shia LaBeouf, who, with American Honey and now this film, seems to have gotten both his career and mental health back on track. The actor (below) has grown from a gorgeous if gangly, pretty-boy youth

into a real man. His performance here, as an angry, on-the-run fisherman who haltingly befriends our Down Syndrome hero (who's also on the run) is a very fine one indeed. In fact, it's LaBeouf's strength and complete credibility that most holds this movie together.

The actor is helped, of course, by the rest of the fine cast, starting with newcomer Zack Gottsagen, (above, left), an actor who has Down Syndrome and makes the very most of his role of Tyler, gaining our sympathy with absolutely no special pleading. Granted, today's audiences are likely to be on his side, just as soon as his condition is made clear. But this actor makes that condition at once both canny and complete. He's as likely to get you angry as he is to win you over. He's funny and moving and every-moment-real -- even when the movie-makers are asking him, as at the finale, to go full-out fantasy.

The leading lady (who is Tyler's care-giver and must track the kid down once he runs away from the facility where he lives) is played by Dakota Johnson (above, left), who is as good here as she's been elsewhere. The supporting roles are taken by actors as superb and in-demand as Jon Bernthal (below, right), Bruce Dern, Thomas Haden Church and John Hawkes, all of whom, considering their small roles, must have been most taken by the story, script and theme.

Comparisons have been made to the "rafting" tales of Mark Twain, and it's a good bet that Mr. Twain would have himself appreciated this smart little movie. Resist it as you might, get ready to be sweetly trounced.

From Roadside Attractions and running just 93 minutes, The Peanut Butter Falcon -- after making a splash at festivals and opening to excellent reviews on either coast -- hits South Florida and elsewhere this Friday, August 23. Click here to find the theater(s) nearest you.

Gerard Barrett's GLASSLAND combines subtlety and melodrama to odd effect

Having recently seen the very fine American-Irish actor Jack Reynor in Sing Street, TrustMovies was fired up to view him in another Irish film, GLASSLAND, alongside one of TM's favorite actresses, Toni Collette, and another good performer, Will Poulter. As written and directed by a fellow named Gerard Barrett, the movie is nothing if not quiet and respectful. This is particularly surprising, however, considering that Barrett's film (the movie-maker is shown below) is all about alcohol addiction, dysfunctional family dynamics and heavy duty criminal activity. Unless I missed something along the way, however, the last of these three does not even suggest itself until nearly the end of the film.

These heavy-duty subjects, as handled by the movies, often result in melodrama -- especially when they're mixed together, as here. And yet Glassland, which refers I am guessing to a world in which everything around you is ripe for breakage, seems anything but melodramatic because its writer/director refuses to go that route. Instead he subdues everything so that even major plot points reveal themselves slowly via quietude and indirection. For anyone beaten down by Hollywood's heavy hand, not to mention those very long running times, this may seem like a kind of Nirvana (the movie lasts but 93 minutes).

Glassland is also a prime example of what some of us are fond of calling "British miserablism," Irish-style. It offers up everything from our current and horrible economic times to a very popular means -- alcohol -- to circumvent same, and even, maybe especially, a handicapped child.

Ms Collette (above) and Mr. Reynor (below) play alcoholic mother and hard-working son in a family where dad has gone missing and another, younger son with Down Syndrome resides in an institution. Fun, huh?

Determined to pull mom out of her abyss, good son does all his can -- which finally includes that aforementioned criminal activity. What it is and where and who it comes from is part of the movie's final surprise package -- the point being, I expect, that when we have little to nothing on our plate, we must do whatever it takes to obtain what we want. I'll buy that. But I don't buy Glassland, at least not fully.

The movie's sub-plot about Reynor's best pal (Mr. Poulter, above) and his problems could be excised in full and the film would not miss it in the least. In fact, we might have used that time concentrating on more and better specifics about the characters played by Collette and Reynor. Performances are all fine, so far as they go. But with more to work from, imagine what the actors might have given us. I'm all for subtlety and indirection, which Glassland offers in spades. But it also needs more content. Otherwise what's there begins to resemble, dare I say it, cliché.

From Film Movement, after a very limited theatrical run this winter, Glassland arrived on DVD this past Tuesday, May 3 -- for purchase and/or rental. 

"Down" with love: GIRLFRIEND, from Justin Lerner, opens at New York's Quad Cinema

At the beginning of Justin Lerner's new film, GIRLFRIEND, a hard-working mother nearing senior status and her Down Syndrome-afflicted son look up at the stars one night after a long, difficult day. "What would you wish for?" asks mom. "A love affair," he answers. Ooooh, trouble. Because mom is played by that great actress Amanda Plummer, this gives the first few scenes of Lerner's movie enormous weight and veracity. The time is now and the place a rural northeastern community as down on its economic luck as most of of the rest of the U.S., and we enter these sad, deprived lives understanding well what they are currently enduring.

Back in 2007 Mr. Lerner, shown at left, gave us a very well-received, award-winning short film (his fourth), The Replacement Child. Girlfriend is his first full-length feature, and with it he takes us into the mental and physical world of a handicapped young man named Evan (played by an actor with Down Syndrome named Evan Sneider, below), showing us how this character perceives the world, including everything from simple conversation to handling the workplace, friendships and then -- ah, yes -- a love relationship.

If only Mr. Lerner's movie had stuck a little closer to the details of Evan's life, particularly his relationship with his mom. Unfortunately Ms Plummer's character lasts only through the first very few scenes, and when she goes, the movie -- and we -- miss her terribly.

From there on, we're into Evan's relationship with his high school "crush," a very attractive young woman named Candy (played as well as the script permits, by Shannon Woodward, above) and her no-account boyfriend, Russ (essayed with quicksilver mood changes by Jackson Rathbone, below).

These two have a lot of baggage and back story, and all of it is aired to distraction in the course of this 94-minute movie. Not that their story is uninteresting, exactly, but it does get heavily melodramatic and certainly takes away from what we'd like to find out about Evan himself. Oh, he's quite involved with Candy and Russ -- but at the expense of his own story -- whatever else, besides the crush he has on Candy, that there might be of it. And so the movie moves from character study to melodramatic soap opera to would-be thriller and mystery to finally a feel-good forgiveness tale -- with a little something extra for Evan.

The idea that a Down Syndrome young man might feel sexual and romantic urges is in no way out-of-line. In fact, last year we had a very good example of this in the much better Spanish movie, Me too (Yo, también), which detailed the relationship of a Down Syndome fellow with a woman who works with him. That film did not shy away from the romantic or sexual aspect of the relationship, and consequently brought us viewers up short in a way that was salutary and bracing.

Girlfriend appears not to shy away from this either, but then completely caves in when it should be strongest. In what is so far the least successful movie I have seen all year -- The Abduction of Zack Butterfield, a probable camp classic -- the camera chastely turns away away during the "sex" scene, though we get Swan Lake on the sound track. Here, the camera does the same (thankfully without that particular music) when it might be nice, not to mention germane, to see the faces of our "lovers" at this particular and very fraught time. But, no, Mr Lerner cops out. That's his choice, so let's allow him that. But did he have to do it in the most tried and tired manner possible?

The movie, from Elephant Eye Films and Wayne/Lauren Film Company, opens this Friday, July 15, in New York at the Quad Cinema. It will be playing some festivals and other venues in the near future, so click here (then scroll down) to see the current list of playdates.