Latest news with #JuanSalvador
Otago Daily Times
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Encounter with scene-stealing penguin
THE PENGUIN LESSONS Director: Peter Cattaneo (M) ★★★+ There was a story on RNZ last weekend about dogs' eyebrows; apparently, they've evolved to facilitate the manipulation of humans. To us, it looks like the canine is having a melancholic moment so we rush in with the affection and chewy treats. It's all projection. A similar sort of thing plays out in The Penguin Lessons, a simultaneously charming and timely film, wherein various of the human characters project an empathy for their issues on to the inscrutable bird of the title. Steve Coogan is a disengaged peripatetic English teacher, a spent force in the classroom, hired by an exclusive school in Argentina — just as the generals take power again in the 1976 coup. He intends a quiet expat idyll but enter the scene-stealing penguin — and the regime's goons — and things turn out otherwise. Initially, Coogan's character saves the penguin, but could it be that, ultimately, it's the penguin doing the saving? The Magellanic penguin, Juan Salvador, is in fact played by several penguins, and this is crucial. Time and again the bird seems to be following the director's instructions to the letter. But as recorded by the Hollywood press, this was achieved as a result of the penguin breed's close couple bonding. When one of the pair on set was gently but strategically transported to the far end of a room, the other would soon waddle over. And, cut. No doubt, a measure of patience was required of the human cast, and that seems to have spilled over into Cattaneo's (The Full Monty) storytelling, which is allowed to unfold in its own good time. As the far right lunges for power in these the sunset years of the western hegemony, The Penguin Lessons does a nice job of revealing the grubby, fear-mongering ignorance of desperate authoritarianism, without labouring the point. There is, of course, no sophistication to uncover there. So, both inside the gates of the school and outside, the regimes are all about demanding silence and subservience in the interests of the already powerful. Coogan delivers a nicely understated performance as the world-weary teacher, while the supporting cast does its best to pinch the odd scene back from Juan Salvador. Bjorn Gustafsson is a hoot as a jilted Finnish science teacher and Vivian El Jaber is a trick as one of the school's housekeepers.
The Guardian
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Penguin Lessons is just the latest film that teaches us how animals rescue men from loneliness
The penguin at the centre of The Penguin Lessons, a new movie by Peter Cattaneo, is nothing if not hard-working. The film, adapted from the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, uses the political turmoil of Argentina in 1976 as a backdrop for the personal transformation of an English teacher at a boys' school. Michell (Steve Coogan) is an idle curmudgeon when he rescues an oil-drenched Magellan penguin from a beach in Uruguay in an attempt to impress an attractive woman. She leaves, but he is stuck with the bird, whom he duly names Juan Salvador, and who thaws him out sufficiently to bond with students and colleagues, process past trauma and rekindle a political idealism. Naturally, there are hurdles for Juan Salvador to clear before the interspecies friendship spreads its wings. Michell tries a range of methods to ditch his new buddy, only for him to waddle back so determinedly that Michell reluctantly transports the penguin across the Argentine border and installs him on the terrace at the college. A perception shift on the charms of his new roommate is aided by an influx of visitors of all ages. Staff and students alike delight in feeding him sprats and – more significantly – in quieter moments are drawn to unburden themselves. In his memoir, Michell mused on the magnetism of a silent yet sentient audience. 'As with any good pastor or patrician, Juan Salvador was such a good listener, patiently absorbing everything that was said to him, from observations about the weather to secrets of the heart. He never once interrupted. He looked people straight in the eye and always paid such close attention to what was said that his guests were inclined to talk to him on equal terms.' The film is the latest in a remarkably long-legged subgenre: man in or approaching middle age experiences powerful emotional awakening thanks to an animal whom they initially kept at leash's length. Unconventional riffs on the subgenre plunge us into the relationship once it has already hit its stride, but for those that start with teething troubles, their secret is stealth psychological power. While it is tempting to focus on the surface charms of, say, Channing Tatum as Jackson confronting the cost of his military service with the help of a hound in 2022's Dog, or the ominous setup of Nicolas Cage as Robin retiring to the woods with a virtuoso truffle porker in Pig (2021), these films may reveal more about how men are taught to handle themselves than meets the eye. 'For some males, the world doesn't feel really safe to connect to,' says Dr Chris Blazina, psychologist and co-author of a 2019 study, Do Men Underreport and Mask Their Emotional Attachment to Animal Companions? The Influence of Precarious Masculinity on Men's Bonds with Their Dogs. Blazina believes many men find their attachment to their dog to be more secure than their closest human relationships, particularly in middle-age and beyond. He throws into relief how vital a relationship like this can be by saying that a lack of social connection has been found to be as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. 'We need connection not just to survive growing up but throughout our lives to flourish as whole human beings,' he says, advancing the theory that a loving relationship with a pet can be a lifeline to men otherwise inclined towards emotional detachment. 'They can turn to animal companions as a friend or family member, and it helps. It's not the complete package, but it sustains some men in a way where they don't give up on connecting.' Men are susceptible to a close attachment with an animal, thinks Blazina, because it is a relationship that can blossom in private, while in public they can underplay its importance. Back in movieland, Tom, Jackson and Robin find that in the non-judgmental space provided by their pets of choice, suppressed feelings surface and they end up more fully inhabiting their emotions. This leads them to connect more authentically and deeply with the people around them. As Blazina says: 'We're hardwired to connect. Sometimes, as human beings, we do such a good job of putting up barriers that say we don't need that. And with dogs, it can be a little cleaner.' The relationship between men and dogs has a special status in cinema and the wider culture, whether powering the entire John Wick franchise (2014-), exposing the true colours of humans in The Call of the Wild (1997) or showing a devotion that not even death can halt as in the tear-jerker Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009). It is not always the case that a canine outlives his master: indeed, their demise is so often weaponised to help a repressed hero confront grief that the website, Does the dog die?, was created to help sensitive viewers navigate the cinematic landscape. As Rudyard Kipling put it in his 1909 poem, The Power of the Dog, 'Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware / Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.' Dogs tend to turn up in soulful dramas or family films. Primates, on the other hand, are infantilised as naughty children, as in Monkey Trouble (1994) and (to verge into TV) Friends (1994-2004), or have their humanoid features exploited to position them as a menace to civilisation, such as in King Kong (1933) or Planet of the Apes (1968) and their many spin-offs and reboots. Creature-features, like the above, may introduce the beasts as brutes but eventually come round to the idea that man is a greater menace and animals have overlooked depths. This chimes with a reflection expressed by Michell towards the end of his memoir. Having spent much time meeting people on his travels around South America, he realises: 'I would never have opened my heart to them, as I had to Juan Salvador, and the same was true of all those who encountered him. How was it that a penguin brought such comfort and tranquility to the people whose lives he touched? Why did they go to his terrace and bare their souls to him as though they had known him for a lifetime, treating him like a real friend who could be relied upon in adversity?' While the mysteries of life-changing attachments to animals cannot be boiled down in one article, there is an infectious quality to this subgenre of cinema. Watching Coogan slowly stripping back his character's protective plumage to expose a sincere and vulnerable man, creates emotional space for the viewer to feel as Michell does. It may occupy the opposite role to Juan Salvador (talking rather than listening) but, nonetheless, cinema can provide a safe, sounding board for our buried emotions.
Los Angeles Times
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘The Penguin Lessons,' starring a teacher's pet, has feel-good movie moments down cold
The unique relationship between animals and people is a territory often mined for cinematic fodder; the twist in 'The Penguin Lessons,' based on the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, is in the exoticism of both the animal and the setting, though the message imparted is indeed familiar. Adapted for the screen by screenwriter Jeff Pope ('Philomena,' 'The Lost King') and directed by Peter Cattaneo ('The Full Monty'), the creative team behind the film is well versed in presenting offbeat human interest stories with humorous and gently effective messaging — and a distinctly British sense of humor. When Tom (Steve Coogan) arrives in Buenos Aires to teach English to the privileged teenage boys at St. George's College, it's on the eve of the military coup in 1976, which he takes in stride with a stiff upper lip and healthy dose of cynicism. We don't know much about him except that he's only interested in keeping his head down and out of trouble. He doesn't have much interest in his pupils, the harrowing political situation or even friendships. On a bus to Uruguay for a weekend jaunt to avoid the coup, Tom's forthright Finnish colleague Tapio (Björn Gustafsson) says he likes his new friend Tom, who sighs, replying, 'You do? I don't.' It's on this fateful trip to Punta del Este that Tom's life begins to change, after a night out with a beguiling woman (Micaela Breque). Wandering the beach at sunrise, they discover an oil slick studded with penguin carcasses. His new acquaintance persuades him to take one of the surviving birds back to his hotel in an attempt to save it, then dashes, leaving him with the now-clean penguin. Try as he might to ditch his feathered companion, the penguin will not leave him alone, so Tom smuggles the bird back to Argentina and into his campus apartment, mostly because no one else wants to deal with a loose penguin. The standard heartwarming and humorous animal story unfolds as the penguin — eventually named Juan Salvador — forces Tom out of his grumpy, bored existence. The care, feeding and hiding of this creature force him to open up to those around him, like Maria (Vivian El Jaber), the campus cook and cleaner, and her granddaughter Sophia (Alfonsina Carrocio), a radical lefty who urges Tom to take a more active role in not just his politics but as a member of the community. 'I expect bad people to do bad things,' she says. 'But when good people do nothing, I could punch them in the face.' Juan Salvador also becomes Tom's way into bonding with his unruly students, wrangling their scattered attentions with the unusual (and adorable) animal. He finds the inspiration to teach them quietly radical poetry, much to the chagrin of the school's headmaster (Jonathan Pryce). The little penguin becomes a kind of mascot, a very cute creature for them to rally around and a therapist of sorts. Juan Salvador forces Tom to connect with others, and through this, he finds his spine, supporting his new friends while they endure the turbulent and terrifying times of Argentina's military dictatorship. Cattaneo and Pope manage to balance the tone of a dramatic historical depiction of fascism with a charming animal story and their secret weapon is Coogan. His bone-dry delivery makes it so that the sour is never too sharp and the sentimental is never too syrupy. Even in moments of deep sadness, he'll crack a rueful joke, and when he lets Tom's vulnerability show, we see the effort that it takes for this man to stick his neck out. 'The Penguin Lessons' is fairly formulaic — it hits the beats you expect it to, exactly when you expect it to hit them — but it is a stirring yarn, made all the better being based on a true story. Thankfully, Cattaneo opted to cast a real bird (actually a pair of them). The thought of Coogan acting opposite a CGI penguin is chilling. Perhaps we don't need the reminder that our personal relationships with animals are some of the most special and rewarding ones that we can enjoy as human beings, but 'The Penguin Lessons' also underscores that our relationships with people are even more important and that sometimes animals are the best stewards for this particular journey. Juan Salvador is certainly one of the more memorable ones. Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
New York Times
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘The Penguin Lessons' Review: A Unique Approach to Teaching
A movie aspiring to be a droll animal-led comedy and an examination of a dictatorship has an intimidating number of needles to thread. The director of 'The Penguin Lessons,' Peter Cattaneo, also made 'The Full Monty,' so he has some experience with crowd-pleasing films, at the same time being deft with unusual subject matter. The movie begins with a familiar disclaimer that it's based on true events. The actor Steve Coogan plays Tom Michell, a teacher from southern England who is unhappily assigned to an upper-class boy's school in 1970s Argentina. (Jeff Pope's script is based on Michell's memoir of the same title.) On an idle day at the beach in nearby Uruguay, Tom encounters a penguin emerging from an oil spill. Hoping to impress a woman he's met there, Tom brings the creature back to his hotel, cleans it off and tries to return it to the ocean. No luck. The penguin believes he's made a friend. Once Tom returns to Argentina, he contrives to make the penguin he has named Juan Salvador a teaching tool, and his English class becomes wildly successful. (While Juan Salvador is supposedly a creature of the wild, he executes all sorts of cute bits that only a trained performer can pull off.) Things get serious when one of Tom's housekeepers is swept up in the military dictatorship. Tom opts to abandon his apolitical facade because the penguin has taught him how to care about others. While Juan Salvador is a shameless exhibitionist, Coogan's performance is understated; he conveys Tom's softening without nudging the viewer too much. On the other hand, the misuse of Nick Drake's 'Northern Sky' on the soundtrack is egregious. The rest of the picture is largely winsome and inoffensive.
Boston Globe
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Put a bird in it: ‘The Penguin Lessons' feels familiar
In 'My Penguin Friend,' a Brazilian man finds a penguin covered in oil due to a tanker spill, and rescues it. The bird starts following him around. The man warms to the penguin, and it helps him process the death of his son. Under the guise of a family-friendly feature, the filmmakers snuck in an environmental message. Footage of the real penguin and the man who loved it played over the end credits. 'The Penguin Lessons' follows a very similar plot, except the protagonist is British and he's mourning the loss of his daughter. There's a message tucked in here as well, but it's harder to swallow. Advertisement I had the same problems with tonal shifts in both films, though 'My Penguin Friend' does a much better job at handling them. After seeing this film, I realize I was too hard on its predecessor. Baba/Richard the penguins as Juan Salvador and Steve Coogan in "The Penguin Lessons." Lucia Faraig Ferrando/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics In 'The Penguin Lessons,' Tom Michell (Coogan) is a sarcastic Brit who teaches high school English in South American countries. (The real Michell wrote the 2016 novel that inspired this film.) Arriving in Argentina at a private school in 1976, his assignment is to whip a class full of failing misfits into shape. The jaded Michell could care less about the work, as he's still wounded by the death of his teenaged daughter. However, he springs to the defense of a bullied kid, Diego (David Herrero). Almost out of spite, Michell teaches his students poetry that Headmaster Buckle (Jonathan Pryce) thinks is incendiary and dangerous, which adds a bit of 'Dead Poets Society' to the proceedings. Advertisement When the 1976 military coup d'etat closes the school for a week, Michell travels to Punta del Este, Uruguay with fellow teacher, Tapio (Björn Gustafsson). He tags along even though a potentially debauched trip such as this one is not his speed. Upon arrival at a dance club, the duo meets Carina (Mica Breque), who takes an interest in the dour English teacher. Uruguay is also where we meet the penguin soon to be christened Juan Salvador (played by two penguins, Baba and Richard). Michell helps Carina rescue him, but his intentions are far from noble. He's hoping this good deed will lead to better deeds with Carina. Unfortunately, she's not only married, but she has a sudden attack of morality and leaves before breaking her vows. Steve Coogan, left, and Mica Breque in "The Penguin Lessons." Andrea Resmini/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics 'I didn't get any sex,' laments Michell. 'All I got was a penguin.' And that penguin has taken an intense liking to him. Despite numerous attempts to desert Juan Salvador, including flinging him back into the ocean and offering him to a Uruguay customs officer, Michell always ends up getting the bird. Back in Argentina, this budding friendship has its perks. The students start listening to their teacher once he bribes them with feeding duties. And there are several funny scenes where people tell their problems to Juan Salvador as if he were some kind of fine feathered Sigmund Freud. In response, he looks at his confessors with a judgmental eye. These moments are fine and cute, even if director Peter Cattaneo ('The Full Monty') hasn't cracked the code on how to make a penguin visually interesting. But 'The Penguin Lessons' severely falters when it deals with the dangers of military occupation. It's hard to watch a serious subplot involving people being 'disappeared' by the government juxtaposed with scenes of cutesy penguin mayhem and classroom hijinks. Advertisement Jonathan Pryce, left, and Steve Coogan in "The Penguin Lessons." Lucia Faraig Ferrando/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics Early in the film, Michell befriends his snarky maid, Maria (Vivian El Jaber), and her outspoken granddaughter, Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio). Maria fears her granddaughter's protests against the regime will get her in trouble. Sure enough, Sofia is snatched off the street by sinister men in broad daylight, a crime observed by several people, including Michell. With her worst fears realized, Maria tries everything to discover Sofia's whereabouts. El Jaber is excellent in these scenes as well as in her comic moments. But the screenplay by Jeff Pope uses Maria's misfortune and Juan Salvador's loyalty as catalysts for restoring Michell's sense of empathy, which feels unbalanced. Also, a scene where Michell confronts the men who snatched Sofia leans perilously close to a white-savior narrative. Adding to my sense of ickiness is the film's last scene, which ties up Juan Salvador's and Maria's separate plot threads. More time is devoted to the penguin than to the people whose lives have been forever changed. Sofia's fate is treated almost as an afterthought, as if the filmmakers didn't want to harsh the mellow feeling 'The Penguin Lessons' uneasily tried to generate. ★★ THE PENGUIN LESSONS Directed by Peter Cattaneo. Written by Jeff Pope, based on the memoir by Tom Michell. Starring Steve Coogan, Jonathan Pryce, Vivian El Jaber, Alfonsina Carrocio, David Herrero, Mica Breque. At AMC Boston Common, Dedham Community Theatre, suburbs 110 min. PG-13 (a few F-words, a penguin throwing shade) Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
