This rethinking of the Peter Pan tale must be appreciated for its stylistic choices and social commentary.
The children are not ripped from their wealthy, white privileged three-story houses but from humble circumstances and hard working families, from lives that don't seem to leave much room to adults for dreaming. In Peter's world, instead of polished palms, the magic of flight, there's mud, dirt, and rust that ground the story world in somewhat of a realistic background. The same magic of natural nature that Ben Zeitlin captured in The Beasts of the Southern While, in the hurricane devastated New Orleans.
What really captivates me are layers and layers of deep commentaries on race in Peter's character, on climate change and human impact exposed through the plastic covered beach, the rusty old "over-fishing" boat, and the Mother, a creature made of Earth's core and the dying coral reef.
Ben Zeitlin's effort achieves to capture the soul of the Pan's story better than any Hollywood studio production. Perhaps this is not the cup of tea of audiences who expect to see an action-packed flick where we can easily point to the villain, root for the hero, dream of flying, and believe in magical creatures. I'm proud of Zeitlin for taking the hard route in weaving complex dynamics, and grounding the story's metaphors down with the contemporary dilemmas of our time.
A timeless piece of art that would be studied in film classes. Bravo!
The children are not ripped from their wealthy, white privileged three-story houses but from humble circumstances and hard working families, from lives that don't seem to leave much room to adults for dreaming. In Peter's world, instead of polished palms, the magic of flight, there's mud, dirt, and rust that ground the story world in somewhat of a realistic background. The same magic of natural nature that Ben Zeitlin captured in The Beasts of the Southern While, in the hurricane devastated New Orleans.
What really captivates me are layers and layers of deep commentaries on race in Peter's character, on climate change and human impact exposed through the plastic covered beach, the rusty old "over-fishing" boat, and the Mother, a creature made of Earth's core and the dying coral reef.
Ben Zeitlin's effort achieves to capture the soul of the Pan's story better than any Hollywood studio production. Perhaps this is not the cup of tea of audiences who expect to see an action-packed flick where we can easily point to the villain, root for the hero, dream of flying, and believe in magical creatures. I'm proud of Zeitlin for taking the hard route in weaving complex dynamics, and grounding the story's metaphors down with the contemporary dilemmas of our time.
A timeless piece of art that would be studied in film classes. Bravo!