Day 5: Marvelous and the Black Hole

Marvelous and the Black Hole

I've noticed a common theme with a lot of films, or a shocking amount, that I've seen at Sundance... THEY'RE TOO SHORT! I felt it with Land, Together Together, R#J, last year with Zola... these movies are too short. All of them fall right around ninety minutes. In the case of this film, Marvelous and the Black Hole, its 82-minute runtime is too short to fully develop its characters. Obviously, the most developed character is its protagonist, Sammy. Her motivations make sense and you end up rooting for her in the end. Miya Cech's performance, though it can come off a little one-note at times, is able to capture this well and infuse with it some trademark teenage rebellion. As for the rest of the characters, we never spend enough time with them to really get them I would have loved to see more with Margot and her background (they talk about it some, but I just wanted more). Overall, though, the film has an unshakable charming quality. The relationship between Sammy and Margot is fun to watch on screen. The film reminded me of another film that came out this year (and premiered at Sundance) called Troop Zero with Viola Davis and Allison Janney. There is an air of childlike wonder, mostly provided by Margot's character, interestingly enough, that I just loved. Though I felt a bit shortchanged by the film's thin character development, I couldn't help but to feel warm at the film's conclusion.

Final Thought: All around, Marvelous and the Black Hole is a charming and heartfelt coming-of-age tale , but it’s character development is too thin for it to be an all-out success.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5