Palmer (2021)
Directed by Fisher Stevens
After 12 years in prison, former high school football star Eddie Palmer returns home to put his life back together—and forms an unlikely bond with Sam, an outcast boy from a troubled home. But Eddie's past threatens to ruin his new life and family.
12 connections found
View:
12 films that influenced Palmer
What critics say influenced Palmer
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The ex-con-befriends-a-kid plot resembles that of grossly underrated Nicolas Cage/David Gordon Green film Joe , with echoes of About a Boy and Sling Blade .
Reminiscent of "Sling Blade" in its themes and tone, the Apple TV+ film hinges on the unlikely bond between a man and a young boy, offering the former redemption and the latter the supportive figure he's lacked.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The ex-con-befriends-a-kid plot resembles that of grossly underrated Nicolas Cage/David Gordon Green film Joe , with echoes of About a Boy and Sling Blade .
While boasting a very similar plot and southern setting to 2013 Nicolas Cage-starrer Joe , Palmer is a quieter, gentler movie.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The ex-con-befriends-a-kid plot resembles that of grossly underrated Nicolas Cage/David Gordon Green film Joe , with echoes of About a Boy and Sling Blade .
It’s About a Boy , but the boy is gay.
Director Fisher Stevens—an actor turned award-winning documentary filmmaker—takes the movie into some predictable places, first as a “buddy picture” showing the gradual bonding process of Palmer and Sam, then layering on emotionally wrenching overtones that might remind movie lovers of break-up dramas like Kramer vs. Kramer or Marriage Story .
Advertisement
There’s style to spare in Ridley Scott’s latest Alien yarn; too bad all the characters are so clueless.
Mega superstar Justin Timberlake - headlining his first feature in quite some time - feels right at home and though Cherly Guerriero’s screenplay radiates with a “Varsity Blues” meets “Gifted” attitude, there’s plenty to embrace including an important take on toxic masculinity.
But, after branching out into animated musicals with the Trolls duo and not appearing in a live-action movie since starring opposite Kate Winslet in 2017’s Wonder Wheel , the SexyBack singer has returned to deliver what might just be his finest screen performance.
This pernicious misrepresentation of reality is not true when it comes to racism, despite what “Driving Miss Daisy” and “Green Book” might want us to believe.
Advertisement
But Allen has a strong handle on his character: Smart without going full “I Am Sam,” cute without being all “Jerry Maguire” about it, and stoic without constantly performing his personal history of abandonment, Sam keeps things anchored in his own precocious truth even when the movie around him teeters towards melodrama.
In the case of this feel-good unconventional-family drama from actor-turned-filmmaker Fisher Stevens (“Stand Up Guys”), it was almost certainly the themes of redemption and acceptance that moved him, and gosh darn if “Palmer” won’t have the same effect on that part of the country hesitant to embrace liberal message movies.
And in the hands of actor turned director Fisher Stevens (“Stand Up Guys”), it’s never much more than a “star vehicle” in the classic sense — lots of close-ups of Palmer’s thousand-yard-stare, tank tops showing off the tattoos, a sex scene and out-of-his-league romance, and sympathetic moments of a fatherless ex-con easing into fatherhood.