Penelope Movie Review and Movie Summary (2024)

In the first few episodes of Netflix's new coming-of-age series “Penelope,” it's tempting to complain about what feels like unbearable tweeness. The show, an eight-part tween riff on “Into the Wild” (right down to a mumbled monologue about the novel itself at the end of the series), co-written and executive produced by mumblecore favorite Mark Duplass, takes a while to settle in unpleasant wavelength. It's ostensibly a show for the younger generation, a kind of Freeform-approved version of “Walden,” in which a precocious blonde girl discovers herself and her relationship with nature, with all the heated discussions about faith and identity that entails brings itself. But the most shocking thing about Duplass and co-writer/director Meg Eslyn's show is that, much like the title character, you end up swallowed by the quiet majesty of what lies before you.

When we first meet 16-year-old Penelope (Megan Stott, best known for her role as the younger Reese Witherspoon in “Little Fires Everywhere”), the whole thing feels like a “Wild” prequel to Rave Out in the Forest, music blaring from her headphones but swaying silently amidst the people around her. Without a word, we see how she has become alienated from those around her and the modern world in which she was born. Only through these fleeting glances and Stott's expressive face do we get any idea why, without saying a word, she snatches $500 worth of camping gear from a supply store and rides the rails deep into the Washington woods. “I’m not running away,” she murmurs in a hasty final voice message to her parents. “I feel like I'm running… towards something.”

That we know little about Penelope's history before she goes all in on Jeremiah Johnson seems to be the point; She's a blank slate, and while it's initially difficult to connect with her as a protagonist, the season's deliberate pacing reveals that this emptiness is its fundamental flaw. She feels something miss from her youth, a terrible abyss that she hopes to fill by reconnecting with nature. Her attraction to Mother Nature feels indescribable and unstoppable, a feeling she can't quite put into words. She soon sneaks into a national park in the Pacific Northwest without a camping permit and decides to live off the land. “Hello, old friend,” she coos at the end of the first episode to a moss-covered sequoia tree under which she sleeps. She's finally home.

Of course, this attempt to survive in her new chosen home is the core of “Penelope’s” quick 25-minute episodes, and Elsyn and Duplass intriguingly present little urgency or danger in her path at first. Even though she's not used to the nature's way of survival, she still wants to get out, thanks to a helpful wilderness survival guide and her own perseverance. These set pieces often form the backbone of individual episodes – we'll see her spend the entire second episode learning how to build a fire and pitch a tent. (Her eventual victory dance is reminiscent of Tom Hanks in “Cast Away.”) In a twenty-minute montage midway through the series, she finally transforms her home into a makeshift log cabin.

These episodes continue almost wordlessly; They are meditative and are one of those things that are best consumed with some relaxing substances in you. They can be too precious at times – the dialogue is for tweens would The images are profound, and Nathan M. Miller's cinematography occasionally loses itself in a certain flatness, although it gives the wooded surroundings a strikingly rural atmosphere. The score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurrians, overlaid with jabbering vocal textures by Julia Piker, has to do a lot of heavy lifting to enforce Penelope's inner monologue. But it's a joy to see Stott deliver such a compelling show while imbuing Penelope with a wealth of endearingly straightforward, emotional beats. She mutters to herself, yells at the rain in frustration, and tries her best to sneak through interactions with people her age and beyond. It's a remarkably vulnerable performance that Eslyn deftly focuses on.

However, she is hardly alone throughout the show; “Penelope” crosses paths with a series of lost souls who are also searching for meaning. There's the strange guitarist (Austin Abrams) who tries to help her before she even gets to the reservation, and the trio of religious teenagers (led by Rhenzy Feliz from “The Penguin”) who also come to the forest to find each other to find yourself. Most notably, “Krisha” star Krisha Fairchild takes on the role of an elderly conservationist who lives in the forest and is dedicated to protecting the preserve’s large trees from loggers. (When one is finally felled, she mourns like a murdered child.) All of these characters are vehicles for Penelope's personal and spiritual journey, catalysts for her own search for self-discovery.

Admittedly, the premise itself is hard to believe: Skeptical viewers might well scream at the screen for her to get away from a black bear cub she befriends in one episode, or wonder how she later becomes a particularly “Revenant” character. survived a similar encounter. But “Penelope” doesn’t care about realism; It is a flight of fancy, an odyssey not unlike the one in which its presumed namesake appears. It's your classic fable about a pampered protagonist who flees his comfortable civilization to test himself in the wilderness. And when you see how it works adorable Since it's a bear cub, you'll understand why Penelope also feeds it oats.

“Penelope,” like many other Duplass films, was self-financed and it’s hard to say if there would be a second season. It's slower, has a more glacial pace and might be a little too meditative for the presumed youth audience. (It feels like the kind of show adults think kids would enjoy, when the only ones who probably would are Girls5Eva's “New York lonely guys.”) But the series ends up exactly that moment when we find out Only a little too much about Penelope's past and family life, a necessary fork in the road for this young woman's maturation. Is she returning to a world that might not miss her? Or remain in their more natural, dangerous state? The ideas and conversations that take place in “Penelope” are hardly the stuff of theses. But these are fundamental, fundamental questions about the human condition, and few shows like this explore them with such emotional rawness.

Entire limited series reviewed for review. Currently streaming on Netflix.