Marvelous and the Black Hole

A-

Directed by Kate Tsang

Staring Miya Cech and Rhea Perlman

​Review by Jon Kissel

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Before embarking on her directorial debut, Kate Tsang worked on Steven Universe and Adventure Time, two Cartoon Network series that deftly used fantasy storytelling to dissect thorny emotions.  Adventure Time especially never talked down to its audience; adults failed children, leaders resorted to imperfect solutions, and the universe was unfair.  In Marvelous and the Black Hole, Tsang brings that same spirit to a coming-of-age story that places wonder and despair right next to each other while providing a star vehicle for talented actors both new and stalwart.

Miya Cech stars as Sammy, a sullen teen girl lashing out after the death of her mother.  As written, Sammy is taking baby steps into delinquency.  She tattoos herself with a homemade ink gun instead of full-on self-harm, and after sneaking cigarettes at school, she bikes home with her helmet on.  The film finds her at a precipice where her misbehavior has forced her father (Leonardo Nam) to put his foot down: take a class at the community college or go to a camp for unruly children.  Sammy goes through the motions in the class, but she bumps into Margot (Rhea Perlman) during a smoke break.  Margot, a magician put off by Sammy’s rudeness, drags Sammy to her nearby gig to serve as her assistant.  Performing for awestruck children, Margot gets a little smile out of Sammy, too.  Despite their vast age difference, Sammy and Margot become friends, as the latter breaks down the former’s walls with both a frank acknowledgement of how terrible it is to grieve someone and how to engineer a smoke bomb escape.
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Marvelous and the Black Hole combines two pet cinematic soft spots; sad kids are sad and the communication of awe.  Cech’s Sammy has earned her sadness and her anger, but they’re both about to take over her life.  Unhappy films about children are so often successful because of that balance, where the film is capturing a compelling pivot point.  Cech is excellent in allowing the viewer to imagine the versions of Sammy on both sides of that pivot.  The awe comes in through Margot’s magic act.  She’s no fancy illusionist, but an artist who uses sleight of hand as her medium.  Eking out a living alongside the other magicians in her little salon, she uses cards and crepe paper to do meaningful work that can wow a child and move an adult.  Perlman is primarily known as the acidic waitress from Cheers, and there’s some of that here in Margot’s blunt honesty.  There’s also an earnest warmth that is so overpowering, it can overwhelm Sammy’s resistance, and the viewer’s as well. 

Tsang’s use of magic within the plot of her film combines with small injections of magical realism for what might be my favorite movie about or featuring magicians.  These usually take the form of a heist film, where the tricks of the trade are good enough to rob a bank, but Marvelous and the Black Hole finds something more true within the art form.  Margot’s tricks are pleasing enough on the surface, but they’re also layered and considered and provide a window into her life.  Marvelous and the Black Hole is a version of a movie that’s been made plenty of times before, but Tsang makes the familiar feel new.  A-