Marvelous and the Black Hole

Forget the old showbiz adage about never working with kids or animals. For this charming little film, veteran performer Rhea Perlman forms a perfect team with rubber-faced newcomer (and future star) Miya Cech. The end result is a coming of age story that holds the attention.

Quite a waste calling this film predictable. Like calling James Bond films 'predictable.' The ensemble cast did a great job in this small budget film that examines one teen's grief based destructive path angst. Then, to our viewer delight we have the arrival of Rhea Perlman the 'magician' and the real star of the film Sebastian the rabbit. The look and feel of a well made low budget indie film with a big dose of feel good angst resolution!

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It's definitely my fault, but my Sundance schedule so far can mostly be characterized by incredibly ambiguous endings, extremely layered narratives, and emotionally heavy stories that left me utterly exhausted by the end of the day. After an overwhelming, devastating viewing of Mass, I seriously needed something to boost my spirit and recharge my energy for the rest of the day. Therefore, I'm super delighted that Marvelous and the Black Hole is such a wonderfully light, funny, uplifting film.

Miya Cech (Sammy) and Rhea Perlman (Margot) offer two heartfelt, amusing performances by portraying captivating characters who have more things in common than they imagine. With a beautifully written, nuanced screenplay and terrific direction, Kate Tsang delivers a lovely story about sensitive matters such as grief, anger, and the whole "moving on" theme, but also about following your passion without holding anything back. It was with genuine pleasure and joy that I closely followed the young protagonist throughout the entire runtime without looking away from the screen.

My biggest compliment has to go to Tsang's writing. I can count so many apparently irrelevant little details that later pay off in such an emotionally resonant manner. I dropped a couple of tears in the last few minutes when Sammy gets to prove her worth, and part of that is also due to Miya's display, an astonishing surprise for me. In addition to this, I love the little sketches spread across the movie, like the screen was Sammy's notebook, demonstrating what she's feeling in the moment. An innovative, entertaining way of developing a character further.

Marvelous and the Black Hole is a massive surprise, being one of my absolute favorites from Sundance so far. Kate Tsang's feature directorial debut is a huge success that definitely places her as a filmmaker to pay close attention to in the following years. With a remarkably subtle, detailed screenplay, Miya Cech and Rhea Perlman spread their sparkling chemistry across the screen, delivering two of the most entertaining performances I've seen in the last few days. A heartwarming story that begins with the impact of the loss of a mother and finishes with an emotionally powerful, uplifting, magic(al) show that I'll remember for quite a while. The young protagonist is so relatable that I couldn't help but drop a couple of tears by the end.

Rating: A-

Mrs. Shullivan and I really enjoyed this story line about the family dynamics that evolves around a teenage girl named Sammy (Miya Cech) who recently lost her mother. Sammy is being raised by her hard working widower father Angus (Leonardo Nam) and the responsibility of monitoring what the troubled teen Sammy is doing is relegated to her older sister Patricia (Kannon). Sammy's father is trying to move on with his life after losing his wife and the mother of his two (2) daughters six (6) months earlier so he has developed a serious relationship with a new female companion that his two (2) daughters expressive faces reflect their disapproval of.

Sammy is taking the loss of her mother, and her fathers new female companion with a rebellious attitude that lands her in her fathers dog house. Sammy is told to attend a small business school and if she refuses her fathers initial direction he has threatened to send her away to a disciplinary summer camp for challenging teens.

As troubled teens with a bad attitude go, Sammy was lucky enough to accidentally meet up with a quirky middle aged female magician who enjoys doing magic shows for children. We the audience see a gradual change in Sammy's bad behaviour as she grows to like spending time with Margot the Magician (Rhea Perlman) and her focus on the negative gradually transitions into a focus on learning magic.

But the real magic is the transition between Sammy and her family including Angus's female companion Marianne (Paulina Lule) as she realizes through the relationship she has developed with Margot the magician that acceptance of her mothers death is not the end of the world but the beginning of a new life and new way of family living.

This is a heart warming story of family and (new) friends relationships, and the magic is the story and the entire cast's performances. I give this under rated film a superb 9 out of 10 IMDb rating.

I think someone categorized this movie's genre wrong. It's not a comedy, it's a comedy family drama. Emphasize on drama. The start was pretty slow, grim and agonizing. It's totally unlikable. So if you want to see the good parts, you're gonna have to grin and bear through that part of the movie. But it's totally worth it, cause even if it's heartbreaking at first, the ending is not. This movie is a lot like love. You can't get the good parts without going through the bad ones as well.