Film Review: Marvelous and the Black Hole, Sundance Film Festival
Miya Cech as Sammy
Kate Tsang’s Marvelous and the Black Hole features magic in a paint-by-numbers healing tale that may hold particular interest for those curious about magic and/or those mourning the loss of a family member. Miya Cech plays Sammy, a sullen teen driven to violent rages by events in her life, including the death of her mother, and her father’s apparent speed in finding a new love.
Frustrated by his daughter’s temperamental moods, Sammy’s father enrols her in a summer business class with the ultimatum, that if she fails or misbehaves, she’ll be off to boot camp. Attempting to sneak off to smoke while in class, Sammy runs into a magician, Margot (Rhea Perlman), who more or less shoehorns Sammy into being her assistant for the day.
Rhea Perlman’s Margot is memorable as an experienced entertainer of children’s parties, who derives pleasure from making children smile. The first magic show we see in the film features lighting the darkness, nourishing the thirsty, and healing a cursed village. The sight of flowers blooming on Margot’s clothing is a beautiful one. I just wish that the film continued to showcase more originality, as the plot becomes rather predictable when Margot starts providing Sammy with magic lessons.
Sammy’s responses to the loss of her mother require sensitivity and care, an approach that this film may lack at times. Sammy self-harms and tattoos Xs on her thigh. Sammy’s father is inattentive except when his work and his new love are involved; it is apparent that Sammy is a problem to check off as soon as possible. When healing between father and daughter begin to take place, there is not enough time for us to see what that would actually look like and involve, aside from a cursory phone conversation about “focusing on my family.”
Margot advises Sammy that she needs to tell a story – and the story that Sammy picks is an obvious one, which is then abruptly placed into the business class’ final presentations. The father and soon to be step-mother are summoned hither by fake emergency notifications, and the plot is wrapped up in a neat little bow – despite the fact the film paves over a few outstanding issues in order to do so.
Magician Derek DelGaudio in In and Of Itself uses magic as powerful metaphors – magic is a means to make others look away from the serious issues at hand, and a means to disappear (or to be found). For Sammy’s mental health and well-being, magic needs to be more than a story that was provided to her at the beginning of the film – otherwise, any growth that takes place can only be modest at best.
Marvelous and the Black Hole screens at Sundance Film Festival February 2, 2021.
The film’s unflinching honesty is at times breathtaking.