Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood – Film Review

Posted on April 3, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Richard Linklater

Writer: Richard Linklater

Staring: Glen Powell, Milo Coy, Zachery Levi, and Jack Black

Rating: ★★★★★

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood is the latest film from legendary director Richard Linklater. With a similar animation style to what he used with A Scanner Darkly, Linklater uses his new film to explore growing up as well as his own life in 1960s Houston, against the backdrop of the space race. It’s an understated coming-of-age story that’s so charming, you can’t help but fall in love with it.

Stanley, voiced by both Milo Coy as a child and Jack Black as an adult who is narrating the film, is a fourth grader who is chosen by NASA to undertake a secret mission. He’s going to be the first person to land on the moon, days before Apollo 11, but no one will ever know.

The film is presented in a style similar to an autobiography audiobook with Jack Black narrating. You can sit back, almost close your eyes, and be taken back in time through a nostalgic look at the end of the 1960s, specifically growing up in Houston. Stanley’s dad and most of his friends dad’s work for NASA. Jack Black does an outstanding job narrating the story, he’s completely captivating and perfectly delivers every line.

There are two parts to this film. On one side it’s about a child on an undercover mission, while on the other side it’s about childhood in the 1960s. The actual plot is farfetched and feels like the tall tale that children tell to impress their classmates, something that Stanley admits he does at one point in the film. It’s complete childhood wish fulfilment, of seeing the adults around him all focused on the upcoming moon landing and wanting to be an integral part of it. While this is the main plot, it’s not the main focus on the film, instead, that’s just Linklater capturing a snapshot in time.

Drive-in cinemas, music, talk shows, the lack of safety precautions, and prank calls make up the majority of the film. It’s just listening to the adult Stanley tell you every little memory of his childhood, while watching it also play out on screen. There’s a very loose structure to it, as the lead up to the moon landing, with it more just feeling like reminiscing and each scene just being the next thing he remembers. It’s mostly the highlights of life, with a few references to tensions at the time.

The animation is beautiful, with some great rotoscoping and a unique look. It feels almost like a children’s cartoon and is the perfect look for the film. There’s also an incredible soundtrack featuring a range of music from the era. You can feel that this is something very personal for Linklater and it really shines.

The film could be something that would be shown to a class of children to teach them about history, and it would be an excellent lesson. At the same time adults can watch this and enjoy it as a look back at the simpler time of childhood. It works on both levels and is something that anyone and everyone can enjoy.  

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Morbius – Film Review

Posted on April 2, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Daniel Espinosa

Writers: Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless

Starring: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, and Tyrese Gibson

Rating: ★★½

The character Morbius, known as The Living Vampire, has finally received his own film. The character was created over fifty years ago, by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, as a reaction to the Comics Code Authority relaxing and allowing certain supernatural characters to appear in comics. At first, he was seen as a throwaway Spider-Man villain, but over the years has grown a cult following.

Dr Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) has dedicated his life to find a cure for a rare blood disease that he suffers from. The cure isn’t just for him, but his childhood friend Milo (Matt Smith) as well. With both of them running out of time, Morbius turns desperate and takes a vampire bat, creates a serum and turns himself into a vampire. The cure is more of a curse though, as Morbius can’t control it and accidentally kills a group of mercenaries. He tries to keep it away from Milo, who steals the serum and takes it, without feeling any of the guilt of murdering.

The film is simply not great, but it’s still entertaining and never drags or feels boring. If anything, the pace is too quick, with characters not being developed enough and some messy plot points that feel incredibly forced, just to move everything forward.

Jared Leto is really good as Morbius. He seems a lot more grounded and less over-exaggerated as he was in Suicide Squad or last years House of Gucci. He’s quiet and focused. Matt Smith also makes a good villain, and seems to be having fun with the role, shouting and dancing throughout the plot. There just isn’t enough substance with the characters. Most of their character building comes through a short sequence where they are both children, with Morbius coming across as a loner who doesn’t get close to the other children.

When Milo first arrives at the clinic, he’s called Lucien, but Morbius renames him as he has with everyone else who has stayed in the bed next to him. At first Morbius is cold towards him, until Lucien nearly dies moments later, Morbius saves him and then they’re lifelong friends. It happens almost as quickly as that last sentence, and is one of the stranger moments in the film. Morbius renames Lucien as Milo, in an almost spiteful and childish act, and that just becomes his name that everyone calls him. It’s not really brought up again in the film.

Some of the things that happen just don’t make sense. At one point Morbius jumps up a stairwell, taking multiple floors at a time, and then reaches the roof. He’s being chased by an FBI agent, played by Tyrese Gibson, who manages to reach the roof moments afterwards, without any problems. He’s not out of breath and doesn’t seem phased by how quickly Morbius was moving. It feels like this was a set-up for something later, and the FBI agent has some kind of power, but it’s not revealed later. There are little bits like that all the way through. When Morbius is on the run, he manages to just find a new lab instantly, without any issues. Because the pace is so quick, it’s not that much of a problem, but the plot does start to crumble the more you think about it after the film ends.

The absolute worse thing about the film, and something that is beyond cringy, and eye-rolling is the other FBI agent, Alberto “Al” Rodriguez (Al Madrigal). He’s there purely to add comic relief to the film, and every joke just doesn’t work. There’s not one moment of the film, beyond Matt Smith’s dancing, that comes close to being funny. The agent being there at all just makes you notice how humourless the rest of the film is.

Morbius is braindead entertainment, and on that level it works. It’s not a great film by any stretch, but it’s not boring.

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The Bubble – Film Review

Posted on April 1, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Judd Apatow

Writers: Judd Apatow and Pam Brady

Starring: Karen Gillan, Iris Apatow, Fred Armisen, Maria Bakalova, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key, Leslie Mann, Kate McKinnon, Pedro Pascal, Peter Serafinowicz, Guz Khan

Rating: ★★

Judd Apatow’s latest film, The Bubble, was inspired by Jurassic World Dominion, which was notably shot during the midst of the pandemic. In The Bubble a group of actors live in a hotel together while shooting the latest movie in the Cliff Beasts franchise. There’s an amazing cast, with an almost never-ending number of cameos throughout, and that’s about it.

Karen Gillan stars as Carol Cobb, who is re-appearing in Cliff Beats 6 after turning down the previous instalment to work on different films, that didn’t go down particularly well. There’s some tension as she first appears on set with her old co-stars. Then adding in isolation periods, positive covid tests, and a director with an artistic vision, the problems on set start mount.

On paper, this film could be brilliant. There’s an incredible cast, the premise sounds good, but it just doesn’t pull it all together. The script just isn’t that funny, which is just a shame. Apatow’s last film, The King of Staten Island, was excellent and this is a real disappointment in comparison. The actors are playing exaggerated caricatures, but there’s still a sense of ‘poor us’ throughout. It’s uncomfortable watching Karen Gillan and co going insane while in isolation in a hotel suite that’s smaller than a lot of people’s houses. The film doesn’t do enough to really make fun of them, and it brings back the same bad taste as celebrities singing Imagine from the beginning of 2020.

Despite that, the final half hour of the film does manage to bring some laughs and is almost worth watching. There’s a lot of cameos, which are funnier than most of the main jokes of the film, especially James McAvoy. While most of the jokes don’t land, there are still a few funny moments, it’s passable as a comedy but nothing spectacular. It’s incredibly long, around the two hour mark, and really shouldn’t be anywhere close to it. It does feel very sluggish, especially without many good jokes.

Somehow The Bubble just doesn’t work, despite and excellent cast. It’s way too long, not very funny, and not really worth going out of your way for. It’s a sad reminder of the last two years.  

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Gravity – Film Review

Posted on March 31, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Writers: Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón

Starring: Sandra Bullock and George Clooney

Rating: ★★★½

Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity is a technical marvel to look at, with flash visuals and some of the most seamless and impressive special effects on screen. The opening is beyond tense, with Sandra Bullock playing Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer who is thrown into space after debris hits the Space Shuttle Explorer. The opening has you completely hooked, feeling it in your gut as she’s shot out into nothingness. The reflection of Earth spinning around in her visor is dizzying to watch, and the isolation and hopelessness is instant.

Then George Clooney, who plays Lieutenant Matt Kowalski, appears almost out of nowhere and saves her, bringing her back to the shuttle and together they start to head towards the International Space Station in order to find a way back down to Earth. You know they can’t keep that level of tension up for the entire film, but it’s dissipated almost immediately, and no matter how hard it tries it never regains it. You know that Dr Stone has to survive until at least the final moments, as the film is from her perspective, so no matter how dire the situation, or how low her oxygen is, she manages to survive. Even with the lack of tension for the majority of the film, the opening is so visceral and powerful that it doesn’t matter.

Visually Gravity is simply stunning. You’d believe this was shot in space, with the way weightlessness is shot, and how beautiful the Earth looks from space. It’s captivating to watch, even with just how detailed the sets are, with the intricate tools used in the opening when Stone is completing her mission. Sandra Bullock is also absolutely brilliant in the role, carrying everything in the film with her performance. It only works because she’s so believable as a character.

While the film does lose a lot of its tension with the way Stone manages to survive everything, it’s still an entertaining and gripping film to watch. This would have been something special to see on the big screen in IMAX when it was first released.

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Infinitum: Subject Unknown – Film Review

Posted on March 30, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Matthew Butler-Hart

Writers: Matthew Butler-Hart and Tori Butler-Hart

Starring: Tori Butler-Hart, Ian McKellen, Conleth Hill

Rating: ★★★

Infinitum: Subject Unknown was shot completely on an iphone during the UK’s first lockdown in 2020. It’s a low-budget sci-fi film, that used the empty streets to their full potential to make this fell grand in scale.

Jane (Tori Butlet-Hart) wakes up to find herself strapped to a chair, in a world that feels slightly out of sync with her own. Before she’s really found out what’s going on, time resets and she finds herself back in the chair. Stuck in a time-loop, Jane has to slowly figure out what’s happening and why she’s there.

The story is really interesting, right from the start you’re hooked and want to know more about what’s happening. Time-loop stories are always intriguing and this one is no exception. The first part of the film mostly takes place in the house that Jane wakes up in, getting further and further away with each reset. You’re never really given that much information about what’s going on, besides some talking head moments with professors played by Ian McKellen and Conleth Hill. This isn’t their film though, with their appearances being more of a cameo. Almost everything focuses on Jane.

While the film is clearly shot in the pandemic, with the eerie quiet streets of early 2020 looming in the background, this isn’t about what we’ve all gone through. It’s just using the setting to the films advantage to get everything going. It makes the film feel very lonely, with barely anyone else appearing throughout, and does give this greatly unsettling feeling which matches the story being told.

Sadly, the pacing is a little messy. It’s only eightyish minutes long, but feels a lot longer. As the final act comes around it feels very drawn out and does loose your interest as it reaches the end, which isn’t that satisfying either.

Overall it’s an interesting film and is something different. It’s not going to blow your mind, but is entertaining while it lasts.

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