#The peanut butter falcon movie#
#The peanut butter falcon pro#
#The peanut butter falcon professional#

#The peanut butter falcon movie#

So while The Peanut Butter Falcon is the rare movie to feature an actor with Down syndrome in a leading role, the focus is tied specifically to the experiences of its star. The three men met years ago at a camp that brought together artists with and without disabilities when Nilson and Schwartz spoke openly about the challenges Gottsagen would face as an aspiring actor, his response was to challenge them to write a role that only he could play. Much has already been written of the partnership between Gottsagen and writer-directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz. With nothing to lose, the two men make a break for the Georgia coast - and Salt Water Redneck's world-famous wrestling academy - with Eleanor hot on their heels. When he finally slips out and hits the open road, he quickly stumbles across Tyler ( Shia LaBeouf ), a self-destructive fisherman haunted by the death of his older brother. There he spends most of his days plotting a grand escape, much to the frustration of the local caretaker Eleanor ( Dakota Johnson ). Because his small community lacks the resources needed to help him live independently, Zak is placed at a local retirement home for full-time care. Gottsagen plays Zak, a young man with Down syndrome who dreams of following in the footsteps of his wrestling hero, the Salt Water Redneck. This makes The Peanut Butter Falcon the rare film with a happy ending both on and offscreen.

#The peanut butter falcon professional#

Just as his character wants to find work as a professional wrestler, Gottsagen had always dreamed of starring in a major Hollywood film. So it comes as no surprise to find that wrestling was one of the main passions in the life of Zack Gottsagen, the breakout star of the upcoming film The Peanut Butter Falcon. In wrestling, cinema lovers can share their love of detail character work and precise stunts with a brand new audience in many ways, wrestling is the perfect allegory for those who want to beat the odds and carve out a Hollywood career. Tyler’s trauma is presented as darkly and inescapably as should be expected.For years, moviegoers and fans of wrestling have found themselves the unlikeliest of bedfellows.

Slurs are hurled at Zak at several turns by strangers, and the film doesn’t shy away from illustrating the pain of discrimination. Tyler doesn’t treat Zak with kid gloves, which is exactly what his always-underestimated friend needs. But the film resists them at (almost) every turn, at least in the characterization if not in the plot. It would be easy, too easy, for The Peanut Butter Falcon to slip into stereotypical portrayals of cognitive disability and treacly sentimentality. They’re seeking The Salt Water Redneck, yes, but also whiskey, and laughter, and something like redemption. When the two unlikely friends meet and bond unexpectedly, they embark on a hero’s quest to find the semi-famed wrestling school, eventually alongside Eleanor. PTSD has left him troubled and closed-off from the possibility of intimacy. Still, he’s equally trapped, both by the pursuit of fellow fishermen (played by Yelawolf and John Hawkes) whose equipment he burned and by the haunting memory of his brother, who died with Tyler himself behind the wheel. He doesn’t have Down syndrome, and as a fisherman, he can go wherever his boat will take him. Tyler (played quietly by a rough-around-the-edges Shia LaBeouf ) is about Zak’s age.

#The peanut butter falcon pro#

He spends his days dreaming of escape and of a pro wrestling career under the tutelage of “The Salt Water Redneck,” a former local hero (Thomas Haden Church). Because Zak was abandoned by his family, he’s fallen through the cracks. As volunteer aide Eleanor (an understated, relatable Dakota Johnson) explains, this is a flaw, a glitch in the system. But he already lives in a North Carolina nursing home alongside his roommate, Carl (Bruce Dern). Zak (Zack Gottsagen), a wrestling-obsessed man with Down syndrome and the film’s protagonist, is only 22 years old. But its greatest strength is not in shining light into what we often collectively perceive as “darkness.” Rather, the film encourages us to bring our own darknesses into the light and examine them through a new prism: friends who become family through shared struggle and pain. The carefully crafted narrative touches on familiar tropes about friendship, disability, trauma, and the twin freedoms and dangers of rural living.