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She also likes sticking Bugles on her fingertips, consulting with a shelf of Care Bears and a color palette that suggests an explosion at the Skittles factory.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that — at least not according to Samantha McIntyre, who wrote the script, and Brie Larson, who directs and stars, earnestly championing a dreamer that others might dismiss as childish or ridiculous. In fact, “Unicorn Store” becomes an argument for itself: If such a tacky fantasy can get produced, then clearly it’s a viable enterprise for grown-ups.
Although the film predates “Captain Marvel” — it debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in 2017, and it is only now on Netflix — the chemistry between its two stars, Larson and Samuel L. Jackson, shrewdly connects the two projects.
Resigned to the cubicle drudgery of a public relations agency, where she serves as a temp, Kit (Larson) responds to an invitation to “The Store,” a mysterious operation run by a Willy Wonka type (Jackson) who offers to sell her “what she needs.” Kit asks for a unicorn.
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As Kit designs a homemade stable for the animal, “Unicorn Store” establishes a crude binary between her rainbow iconoclasm and the assortment of middle-aged stiffs who nudge her toward a life of coffee-swilling and temp work. The message here is that there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for adulthood, but the film doesn’t bear it out.
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“Unicorn Store” is not rated. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes.