Female Film Critics 24/375
The plot follows a formula, which director Kate Tsang honors while adding sharp edges — not sharp enough to be inventive, just deckled enough to keep it interesting. The other thing Tsang does is make the audience care about teenage Sammy Ko, played by Miya Cech, and her mentor magician, played by Rhea Perlman. Marvelous and the Black Hole does not carve new pathways, but it satisfies the heart in an hour and 20 minutes.
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A magician brings some wonder and healing into a troubled teen’s life in the comedic drama Marvelous and the Black Hole, a film with an uneven tone that ultimately succeeds in part because of its leads’ chemistry. Making her feature directing debut, writer Kate Tsang weaves the unlikely friendship of “Marvelous Margot” and Sammy through Sammy’s heartache over the death of her mother. Perhaps the best trick that Marvelous and the Black Hole has up its sleeve: Grief doesn’t have to disappear fully for life to blossom in unexpected ways.
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Marvelous and the Black Hole, premiering at Sundance 2021, is written and directed by Kate Tsang. Teenage delinquent Sammy (Miya Cech) is struggling with grief about the death of her mother, and is acting out in ways that are both self destructive and damaging to the world around her. It takes meeting Margot (Rhea Perlman), a no-nonsense magician, to make her question how she wants to exist and move forward in the world. The film not only reflects the experience of a complicated 13 year old Asian American girl, it also offers the perspective of a 70-something woman living on her own terms. Tsang uses a diverse cast and crew in telling this magical coming-of-age tale, with a number of female creatives as department heads. We spoke to Kate about this production and in what ways the story mirrors her own experience as a teenager.
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