*Not much to spoil here..

IMDB Synopsis

After 12 years in prison, former high school football star Eddie Palmer returns home to put his life back together and forms an unlikely bond with Sam, an outcast boy from a troubled home. But Eddie’s past threatens to ruin his new life and family.

“You touch that boy again I will break your arm”

Slowly but surely Apple+ is making moves into the world of Television and Movies. They have not had a ton of movie hits yet, however their new film Palmer seems to be a major step in the right direction.

Directed by industry veteran Fisher Stevens, Palmer is a movie that feels like it could take place in our world. Eddie Palmer (Justin Timberlake) just wants to turn his life around after serving his time for a crime committed in his youth. When he meets young Sam he immediately can see, as he says, Sam is not like other boys. Sam likes to hang out with the girls in his class and dress as a princess for halloween. Palmer is the first person to truly accept Sam for who he is so they form an immediate and powerful bond together. Meanwhile, Sam’s Drug Addict Mother (Juno Temple) and her abusive boyfriend are trying to keep them apart.

Overall the movie feels very simple, yet very realistic. All of the movie feels like it takes place in our world, and shows a relationship you may never expect. Usually with a character like Palmer he might be some macho man and not understand Sam. However, Timberlake plays him with such sensitivity and honesty you become so invested in the duo. Even when the inevitable hurdles come you cannot help but root for this odd couple to end up together.

Stock Watch

Stock Neutral – Justin Timberlake

Justing Timberlake is a massive star, and has done some great acting work in his career. I think his best role is probably still The Social Network, but this is the role I have seen of his that has the most depth. He has to go to places throughout this performance that I have never seen in his repertoire and I loved it.

*A couple other tidbits

• Juno Temple is great and with this and Ted Lasso, lets keep getting her more roles.
• Ryder Allen as Sam was fantastic and had some very emotional moments for his character.
• The score by Tamar-kali was great helped the strong emotional pull of the story.

It is exciting to see a streamer like Apple empowering filmmakers to make simple stories like these. Palmer is a very human story about acceptance, love, and hard work and all of those themes are important in today’s world. Palmer was not perfect but it definitely surprised me and showed me that we are just going to keep finding good content in many different places.

Juice Rating:

*You can find my 2021 Movie Rankings here.

*You can find all of my Movie Ratings here.

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