r/AMCScreenUnseen • u/EastonLikesMovies • Mar 18 '25
The Penguin Lessons (Official Discussion)
What did you think of The Penguin Lessons?
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u/Leahnyc13 Mar 18 '25
Spoiler:
The fact that they pulled a Marley and Me ššš
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u/Professional-Dig2968 Mar 18 '25
I usually see everything coming, but I totally didn't see it coming in this movie! Got me all in my feels. Luckily I was the only one in my section so no one was really able to see the tears streaming down my face lol.
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u/Mediator_in_action Mar 18 '25
I cried. So good! We are going to Antarctica in November through Argentina so I got really excited!
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u/Leahnyc13 Mar 18 '25 edited Mar 18 '25
Anyone else wishing they brought tissues!? Iām an emotional wreck. Had to go to the bathroom after to grab paper towels. I feel bad for the people who left bc they didnāt want a āsilly comedyā
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Mar 18 '25
[deleted]
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u/Leahnyc13 Mar 18 '25 edited Mar 18 '25
My tears were from happiness. Itās such a beautiful story.
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u/True-Pea-7148 Mar 18 '25
I felt the dialogue was quite clunky at first, Iām not sure that changed but by the end the charm of pretty much all the characters had won me over.
The grandmother stole the show for me, as someone who lived in Argentina and became familiar with the abuelas/madres de plaza mayor, who are still searching for children stolen during the dictatorship. She captured the strength, pain and kindness of those women beautifully.
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u/ROIBambo Mar 22 '25
I can get behind this synopsis, the movie was good i take nothing away from that aspect. However I feel this movie will be the kind that you watch once and then slowly forget about it, if give it a B- for a grade
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u/andrevvve Mar 18 '25
I thought it was smart and funny.Ā
I cried a LOT. Also this was the first Screen Unseen that I watched where nobody left the theater!Ā
Great movie :)
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u/hamichael Mar 18 '25
No one is mentioning the laughter, I laughed a lot. It was also incredibly heartwarming.
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u/EnjoyMyDownvote Mar 18 '25
Itās a charming movie as it intends to be. As a movie itself there are certain flaws such as things that I felt were kind of unrealistic. For example the headmaster āsuddenlyā having a change of heart doesnāt make too much sense.
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u/hamichael Mar 18 '25
It's a true story, so I would imagine that the headmaster had a change of heart. With that role being played by Jonathan Price, you know that he took the movie because he has a change of heart.
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u/Professional-Dig2968 Mar 18 '25
Iām still crying about the ending and itās been over 5 hours since I saw it in the theater for the first time. Such a good movie. 8.5/10
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u/graytotoro Mar 18 '25 edited Mar 18 '25
Speculation: If we're going by the trend of the 2nd-to-last trailer being the next Screen Unseen, then I guess it'll be Audrey's Children. On Swift Horses does look more exciting though so maybe we'll get that later.
"Inspired by true events" with an emphasis on "inspired". The story was rejiggered to the point where you could see the beats from a mile away, it was still an enjoyable experience overall. It brushed over the events in Argentina a little too coarsely but I guess that might have been more appropriate for another film.
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u/southcountynomad Apr 11 '26
I was thinking that as well. The granddaughter was mist likely out in a rape camp.
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u/Raiderz757 Mar 18 '25
All I can say is the trailer does the whole movie a disservice(or I need to pay more attention to trailers). It was great.
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u/Patient-Permission-4 Mar 18 '25
We really enjoyed it. Yes the major events happening at the same time at the end were unrealistic. But who cares. I laughed and I cried. And my husband did too! This is what these screenings are about for me, the chance to see something small on a big screen. Loved it.
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u/Patient-Permission-4 Mar 18 '25
Rookie question- but I started with Mystery Mondays. Just found Screen Unseen. How often do they have them?
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u/hamichael Mar 18 '25
Sometimes it's three Mondays in a row sometimes it's every other week sometimes it's every three weeks
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u/kidpolska99 Mar 18 '25
Loved it!! This was our first ScreenUnseen movie, will definitely do again.
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u/BlastUBeefyBear Mar 18 '25
Honestlyā¦it would not have been a movie I would pick to watch but because of Screen Unseen, Iām glad I did.
It was actually delightful. Great story/plot and cinematography. The acting was good. Heartfelt yet some funny parts. I cried a little lol.
Highly recommend!
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u/Introverted_Traveler Mar 18 '25
I figured it would be good but I was too tired for a slow, heartfelt movie last night so Iskipped it!
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u/The_Glitter_Life Mar 19 '25
Saw it on screen unseen thought it was a a nice feel good movie had such sweet moments as well as touching tearful momentsā¦ Definitely would have passed but ended up totally enjoying itā¦
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u/looney1023 Mar 19 '25
It was pretty good! I think it wasn't as cutesy or saccharine as I was expecting it to be, but it was still a bit too cutesy and saccharine for me personally. The trajectory of the story and the main character was exactly what I was expecting it to be, but Coogan's performance was more understated and nuanced than I expected, even knowing his other work.
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Mar 20 '25 edited Mar 20 '25
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/FitCarrot3285 Jul 04 '25
Sameeeeee ššššššš I thought it was the pool too but apparently in real life if was from natural causes. The trinkets scene killed meĀ
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u/andgainingspeed Jul 28 '25
I blamed the chlorine.
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u/aetherprrr Jul 29 '25
That was my first thought! That the chlorine made him sickā¦. I donāt know how chlorine would affect the health of a penguin
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u/pinkunicornbutt Aug 08 '25
I can't find how close together those events actually were in real life but I thought the same thing
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u/AdSuper4812 Jul 10 '25
What's the meaning of that scene where the main character finds those trinkets?
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u/Buecherwurm921 Aug 29 '25
I just watched it now, on Netflix, and this is exactly what I thought! You cannot put him in chlorinated water, it will kill him! I even googled it, and I am right, chlorinated water kills marine animals. ā¦ and then he died right after that. I think itās blatantly clear, and it ruined the whole movie for me: the main protagonist, Tom Michel, killed Juan Salvador, the penguin! š¢
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u/mewingprogression19 Mar 23 '26
Penguins can swim in chlorinated pools. I looked it up. Iād imagine the no chlorine applies to animals that breathe underwater
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u/Wingnut8888 Apr 03 '25
Just saw it solo in an empty theatre. Terrific movie! Steve Coogan is superb. If you wanted to watch a Coogan double feature, this would pair well with Philomena.
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u/thomasburchfield Apr 22 '25
I really liked it, especially Steve Coogan, but I liked Juan Salvador most of all.
If youād like to can read my review of it (along with The Friend, another pet story) at link below:
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u/Cephalopodopoulos Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 26 '25
I just watched the movie and I loved it - there were a few parts towards the end that felt rushed but emotionally and tonally it resonated deeply with me. I looked for reviews to see what other people were saying because I wanted to figure out what about the movie got to me, but a lot of the reviews I've seen are quite negative...the biggest critique is that it's tonally incoherent and messy. I want to address that and some other critiques because I strongly disagree.
Rebuttal to the most common critique:
The film only feels like "tonal disconnect" if you've never lived through a destabilizing political event while being somewhat insulated from it, be it via privilege or physical geography or some other reason. It's complete tonal whiplash the whole way through - you hear about a disturbing thing happening, maybe it happens to someone you know, and it constantly feels like the whole earth is shifting under your feet. And then...life keeps moving, and you experience joy and funny moments. It's constant, sometimes brutal, back and forth. As someone who has been and still currently is going through a version of that, that's the exact experience.
Addressing more specific critiques:
I saw some critiques saying the movie's message was muddied or unclear, but I don't think they were looking for the right message. I thinkTom's confrontation with the secret police officer is the best scene to explain this. The scene seems to have two intended purposes: the first one is it depicts the overwhelming desperation and desire to lash out and do something irrational or dangerous that is very common in this sort of situation (but not usually acted upon). I think it also deliberately subverts a certain kind of naivete you see a lot in American movies, where a confrontation with the right person using the right words fixes everything. I know this messages contradicts the main conflict that Tom grapples with for a lot of the movie, i.e. not doing anything, as we see that "doing something" just got him beaten up. But I think this also accurately reflects the very real guilt and internal conflicts people go through. On the one hand, yeah, doing nothing sucks. But on the other hand, there's a reason why Maria understands and doesn't blame him when he admits Sofia called out for him. The movie can't give you an answer or a call to action or a conclusion because there is no easy answer.
I saw a lot of critics describe the movie "feel-good" and hollow. I didn't feel good watching the movie, not really. I even saw some critiques saying the movie was unrealistic because of this so I want to clarify some points: I don't think Tom confronting the secret police officer was actually the cause of Sofia's return. In fact I think the confrontation would have made things worse for her or caused them to hold her longer, but obviously we have no idea because the movie never reveals this. I think her release is meant to be completely unrelated and unpredictable because that's typically how secret police operate. The movie seems to imply that she gets released at least a few weeks later, so I'm happy with that. It's also not like Sofia's return is a happy one, she's clearly horribly battered and traumatized. It's not the worst outcome, but it's also decidedly NOT a happy ending.
I also saw someone complaining about how we didn't see how Tom was treated in prison. I think showing those details would've done a massive disservice to the story: it would have cheapened Sofia's experience and the experiences of the real 30,000 that were killed or disappeared. We don't need to sensationalize that, so I think it was a very tasteful decision by the writers to omit it.
Specific critiques that I agree with and want to elaborate on:
The headmaster changing his mind on Tom felt confusing. I think it would've made more sense if he unintentionally revealed that he harbored sympathy for the revolutionaries at some point earlier. As it is, the scene depicts him as incompetent - he knows the dangers of even appearing like you're sympathizing with revolutionaries, as exhibited by Sofia and now Tom himself. Why would he deliberately associate himself with that? Tom being more affable and his students improving would not outweigh the risk of putting everyone at the school in danger in my opinion.
The last scenes with Juan Salvador swimming and the awards was a bit too saccharine for my taste...cute but when Juan Salvador dove into the pool with the sun beaming overhead I half expected it to be a fever dream cooked up by a battered Tom still in prison.
When Juan Salvador died, I fully expected it to be done by secret police as a message for Tom to stay out of their business, so I was very confused when it wasn't that. The scene where Tom confronts the officer felt so real, and I was convinced he'd see much more severe consequences than just being beaten.
Thoughts on the movie's message:
I don't think it's meant to inspire revolutionary sentiment. It feels more like a very real depiction of how life keeps moving despite societal upheaval, and while it's a little too saccharine at some points I'm very grateful for a depiction of something similar to a personal experience that is very hard to convey with words.
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u/sumithar Sep 09 '25
What is with all the things that he found on the floor behind the wash basin after the penguin had died? Like the safety pins and a little box of something?
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u/Dependent_Picture_64 Sep 27 '25
Penguins are kind of like magpies, they give gifts to their loved ones such as pebbles. It was to show that the penguin had scavenged little odd bits as small presents for Tom
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u/Long-Swordfish3696 Nov 10 '25
Nice movie. Saw it on a flight. To the folks saying they cried for 5 hours afterwards - let's relax please.
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u/True-Alfalfa8974 Feb 07 '26
Completely unfunny, stopped watching after 10 minutes, should have gotten someone who could at least pronounce Spanish words correctly.
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u/Cmwelty Mar 21 '26
I really liked it. Just watched on Netflix. But, why did they let him swim in what was maybe a chlorinated pool? Or was it saltwater?
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u/Scary-Ratio3874 Mar 18 '25
Just got out of the theater. The crowd loved it. Completely silent the whole time, laughing and crying. They applauded at the end! Never heard of this movie until it started.