Directed by: Brie Larson
Runtime: 92 minutes
Have you ever sat down to watch a film, and within the first five to ten minutes just known that it was not made for you? This was the exact situation I was left with while watching Unicorn Store. Brie Larson steps behind and in front of the camera, starring in her own directorial debut. Unicorn Store gained its first wide release earlier this month on Netflix, initially screening for a limited period at the Toronto International Film Festival all the way back in 2017. This is a film I probably would never have watched if not for a mildly interesting trailer and not much else to watch on a Saturday evening with my partner and her parents.
The film begins with our main character, Kit, failing horribly during an art…. assignment? Entrance exam? I don’t really know… it doesn’t explain what is going on all too well. We just know that the snooty art people didn’t like her expressionist on-the-spot performance-art painting. So, she is out of art school on her ass and forced to move back in with her parents. This was one of my biggest gripes with this film—art snobs are so far up their own asses that they would love what she does in the opening scene. They would find hidden meanings, emotions and messages all over it. Wallowing in her own self-pity and feeling like a disappointment, Kit decides to take a temp job. During her first day, she receives a mysterious letter leading her to a store—a unicorn store to be specific. Here is where the plot takes off as she is provided tasks to be fulfilled in order to receive her very own unicorn. While the plot feels a little ridiculous and trope-laden at points, one thing I find interesting about this film is that it’s hard to pin down into a genre. There are elements of romance, comedy and indie-arthouse cinema, but I think the best way to sum it up would be a coming of age story starring a grown woman.
For the most part, the characters in Unicorn Store are forgettable, with Samuel L. Jackson as an eccentric unicorn salesman standing out the most alongside Brie Larson in the lead role. Jackson hams it up and is as fun to watch as ever. The side character actors do a fine job, they are just playing roles we have seen so many times before. The overly nice guy who won’t stop supporting his friend no matter what and the, well, overly nice parents who think they are doing the right thing all the time, however, still getting scorn from their ever-frustrated child. Larson as Kit is the only one to really receive a character arc, which is well constructed if not a little confused. Initially, the film feels like it wants Kit to no longer feel like a failure but it sort of evolves into more of a story about a closed-off character learning to accept people into their life. Kit is childish, and at points a little too childish; no mid 20s person acts the way she does. This childishness informs the problem I have with her character—her other defining characteristic is her random bouts of anger and mood swings. There is one particularly harsh example during the film that just doesn’t mesh with the happy-go-lucky character we see throughout most of the film and only acts to make her less likeable.
While Larson plays childishly in front of the camera, she is studious while behind it. In terms of direction, nothing stands out as innovative or brilliant throughout the flick, but it does retain a solid polished feel. For a first-time director, this is a very competent outing. The story can feel a little ridiculous at times but by the end the film finds a nice message to convey even if the route there was a little shaky. I started out by saying that this film was not for me, and I still retain that sentiment, but that’s not to say there isn’t an audience for it—perhaps I’m just not among its ranks.
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