Not quite adult enough to be young adult, and not quite a children’s film either, Kate Tsang’s “Marvelous and the Black Hole” is a sweet-natured throwback, the kind of film a parent might wish their young teen would watch, rather than whichever dystopian franchise or fanfic adaptation they’re currently involved with.
A set-your-watch-by-it riff on the unlikely-friendship-helps-two-lonely-people formula, this time involving a troubled schoolgirl and a stage magician, it is however so nicely performed and takes such honest pleasure in the flourishes of its little magic show, that only a hard heart would mention that the palmed coins and hidden cards of its construction were visible all along.Thirteen-year-old Sammy is played by rising TV star Miya Cech (best known in film as the younger version of Ali Wong’s character in “Always Be My Maybe”), who deserves as big a breakout as so small a movie can give her.
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