The Peanut Butter Solution (1985) is the most bizarre movie... ever?
Mr. Hall was telling me about random films that he was forced to watch as parts of school days when he was a kid. No, I'm not talking about educational films -- I'm talking just regular, ordinary, entertainment-focused films with zero educational value. (As a homeschooler, I missed the experience of having the state force me to watch Don Knotts movies on the taxpayer's dime).
Well, as it turns out, in addition to being forced to watch The Shakiest Gun in the West (which I accidentally left off my recent list of Films that We've Shut Off ) he watched a film called The Peanut Butter Solution.
He described this film to me, and I thought he must have dreamed it. But then he found an actual copy of this movie and we watched it, and it really does exist.
The Plot: A boy named Michael is sad because is his Mom is away, and he's left at home with a somewhat bossy older sister and a loopy artist father who makes bad financial choices. On the way to school, the boy is terrified by something so scary that it makes him a) lose all memory of the incident, and b) lose his hair. After being bald-shamed during a soccer match, he refuses to go back to school, until two ghosts appear to him in a dream and tell him to make a solution out of peanut butter that will grow his hair back. Well, he does so, and adds TOO MUCH peanut butter, and gets the opposite problem -- his hair won't stop growing. Add an eccentric Asian best friend, magic, child abduction and sweatshops to the mix, and there you go -- The Peanut Butter Solution.
The Trailer.
The Bad Points:
The family dynamic in this film is really confusing... to the point of being somewhat unsettling. The acting isn't great (but it's also pretty natural-feeling, for the most part).There were a few terrible jokes (like when the Doctor says that our hero's condition is called "Hairum-Scareum") but, for the most part, these are so few and far inbetween that in addition to being groaners, they seem reallyof out-of-place as well. (I mean, do you really anticipate Bugs Bunny-level wordplay in a film that also features homeless people being burned to death?) Also, I was utterly perplexed as to why anybody thought this was something that should happen in a movie, ever:
On the left. That's hair.You see, at one point, his wacky Asian best friend smears some of the solution "down there" just to see what will happen, and we're treated to this horrifying image. (He wills it to stop growing eventually, so this doesn't become a major plot element, but this one glimpse of this scenario would have been bad enough.)
The Good Points:
It gets a bit dark (as you probably gathered from the comments about child abduction, etc. etc). I debated whether or not to list that as a bad point or a good point, and finally decided on "good" -- because I think that modern children's movies are far too soft, being afraid to have real villains, real stakes and real tension. There is nothing in this film that will give a child permanent psychological damage (except, maybe, that screen capture above). And, for that matter, I think kids developing fears of going into sketchy burnt-out buildings and of people who drive up in vans and attempt to abduct them is a good thing. The music is pretty good. (Apparently film this was Celine Dion's big break? And no, I'm not kidding about that.)It keeps you guessing! (Did I already mention that it was impossible to figure out what was going to happen next in this film?)I almost don't know what to say about this movie. I will say this, though; even though large parts of it didn't make sense at all, it was actually a pretty entertaining film. We never, ever knew what was going to happen next. I would actually own a copy of this film and re-watch it. So, in the end, it's definitely recommended... with the stipulation that you have to be in the mood for a really sketchily made, confusing, kind of bad kid's movie -- that nevertheless has a lot of entertainment value.
But what was this movie ultimately about? Was it about conquering your fears and shame? Was it about the cruelty of childhood? About missing your parents when they're away? The value of a good education? The notion that artists don't make good parents? Was it a comedy? A drama? Or is it just the summit of Canadian filmmaking? The answer: It's about all of that and more.
Well, as it turns out, in addition to being forced to watch The Shakiest Gun in the West (which I accidentally left off my recent list of Films that We've Shut Off ) he watched a film called The Peanut Butter Solution.
He described this film to me, and I thought he must have dreamed it. But then he found an actual copy of this movie and we watched it, and it really does exist.
The Plot: A boy named Michael is sad because is his Mom is away, and he's left at home with a somewhat bossy older sister and a loopy artist father who makes bad financial choices. On the way to school, the boy is terrified by something so scary that it makes him a) lose all memory of the incident, and b) lose his hair. After being bald-shamed during a soccer match, he refuses to go back to school, until two ghosts appear to him in a dream and tell him to make a solution out of peanut butter that will grow his hair back. Well, he does so, and adds TOO MUCH peanut butter, and gets the opposite problem -- his hair won't stop growing. Add an eccentric Asian best friend, magic, child abduction and sweatshops to the mix, and there you go -- The Peanut Butter Solution.
The Trailer.
The Bad Points:
The family dynamic in this film is really confusing... to the point of being somewhat unsettling. The acting isn't great (but it's also pretty natural-feeling, for the most part).There were a few terrible jokes (like when the Doctor says that our hero's condition is called "Hairum-Scareum") but, for the most part, these are so few and far inbetween that in addition to being groaners, they seem reallyof out-of-place as well. (I mean, do you really anticipate Bugs Bunny-level wordplay in a film that also features homeless people being burned to death?) Also, I was utterly perplexed as to why anybody thought this was something that should happen in a movie, ever:
On the left. That's hair.You see, at one point, his wacky Asian best friend smears some of the solution "down there" just to see what will happen, and we're treated to this horrifying image. (He wills it to stop growing eventually, so this doesn't become a major plot element, but this one glimpse of this scenario would have been bad enough.)The Good Points:
It gets a bit dark (as you probably gathered from the comments about child abduction, etc. etc). I debated whether or not to list that as a bad point or a good point, and finally decided on "good" -- because I think that modern children's movies are far too soft, being afraid to have real villains, real stakes and real tension. There is nothing in this film that will give a child permanent psychological damage (except, maybe, that screen capture above). And, for that matter, I think kids developing fears of going into sketchy burnt-out buildings and of people who drive up in vans and attempt to abduct them is a good thing. The music is pretty good. (Apparently film this was Celine Dion's big break? And no, I'm not kidding about that.)It keeps you guessing! (Did I already mention that it was impossible to figure out what was going to happen next in this film?)I almost don't know what to say about this movie. I will say this, though; even though large parts of it didn't make sense at all, it was actually a pretty entertaining film. We never, ever knew what was going to happen next. I would actually own a copy of this film and re-watch it. So, in the end, it's definitely recommended... with the stipulation that you have to be in the mood for a really sketchily made, confusing, kind of bad kid's movie -- that nevertheless has a lot of entertainment value.
But what was this movie ultimately about? Was it about conquering your fears and shame? Was it about the cruelty of childhood? About missing your parents when they're away? The value of a good education? The notion that artists don't make good parents? Was it a comedy? A drama? Or is it just the summit of Canadian filmmaking? The answer: It's about all of that and more.
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