Review of Lean on Pete (2018) by Mattbrady99 — 22 Aug 2018

"I just miss him a lot. I miss him so much.".

I've heard little things about this hidden gem and the great praise it got at festivals, but nothing else after that. So upon seeing this on the list of movies on a plane journey home, I gave it a try, and was instinctively blown away.

You know there’s something special when your jaw drops in disbelief during an exhausting flight home.

‘Lean on Pete’ begins with a narrative that you most likely have seen before, so immediately you start noticing plot points from other movies. However, the film takes a shift into a completely new direction, nowhere near the climax, just the middle segment.

Becoming a bitter look at loneliness.

Charlie Plummer was absolutely superb. Definitely a breakout performance, as this is the first movie I've seen him and I want to see more him. His character doesn't make the smartest decisions, yet that never distracts you from the movie and you understand where he's coming from.

Steve Buscemi, Travis Fimmel, Chloë Sevigny, and Steve Zahn were all great and you bought into their characters. With the amount of screen they got, they still left a strong impression on me.

I haven’t seen any of Andrew Haigh other movies, such as ‘Weekend’ & ‘47 Years’. This is my first introduction to his movies and I want to check out more of Haigh work. Just the way he directs actors and bringing such a natural touch to the story or characters made the experience real to me. Also the cinematography was beautiful and captured the sense of being in Pacific Northwest of America. While not being visually masterful, and yet didn't need to be.