Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood

source: Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure

Not up there the Boyhood, or the Before trilogy, but fun nevertheless. The recreation of the 1960s Linklater family tropes is heartfelt and truly etched, and the rotoscope animation is brilliant, but there is a little too much ticking-the-box of 1960s topical events and cultural trends. The winsome fantasy of the kid astronaut is meant to be the rocket propellant that binds it and lifts it, but this does not quite come off.

Fun animation depicting a time when most all people were experiencing the same look at a real time event in our early stages of technology. For better or worse, everyone was viewing from a shared lense. Quite a contrast from our splintered viewing from which we now interpret real time reality. The director has nailed the zeitgeist of 1969.

The title and trailer is definitely misleading by insinuating that this is some sort of space adventure. Granted, there are some fragments of space adventuring going on, but 95% of the film is basically a time capsule of the 60s which tells you all about what life was back then, filled to the brim with nostalgia. As such it reminded me a bit of The Virgin Suicides in the romantic way it glorifies those long lost days, so stuffed with timely music, tv-shows and other pop-cultural tidbits that it successfully weaves a rose tinted memory of childhood, which will probably have most people create nostalgic connections to what all these references mean in their own life.

Firstly the film looks wonderful. The scenes in NASA and in space are superb. But the majority of the film for some reason is about the everyday life of a boy from a family whose members, apart from the father, are so undeveloped so we never feel anything for them or learn anything about them, and living in an utterly boring new estate in the USA. No doubt the stream of specific cultural references to everyday foods, tv programmes, games, etc., will have Americans who grew up in similar circumstances smiling and nodding their heads. But non-USA viewers may well feel excluded and that they are having to indulge the film-makers and target audience. The narrator's voice, as the child now grown up, is like the worst kind of old sot who goes on and on about the intricacies of his childhood world late at night. When he points out that the kids riding in the back of the pci-up would not be allowed today but they were then unaware of the danger of a crash or rollover we feel we are in the presence of a half-drunk bore who has to tell us every detail in case we are too stupid to understand. He hardly matches the boy's character and it is hard to see a link between them. Worst of all is the coolness of every character, apart from the mother who is not developed beyond being motherly. If this is the tale of a bored child fantasising that he is secretly an astronaut, then why spend most of the film on the boring bit? The whole long section from the point where the boy is in training to when we resume the NASA narrative seems to go on forever. What a shame - this is the opposite of Boyhood: by being particular to the point of boredom the film-makers have produced a film that is only for those who themselves like to be indulged.

What was the point of this? Not much of a narrative. Just a long travelogue through the 60s but with no real stakes. Animation is interesting but comes off as extreme navel gazing nostalgia soaked nonsense. Big waste of time.

Linklater's childhood nostalgia, a little bit of fantasy and an almost documentary-like record of the moon landing using partially rotoscoped animation. Linklater's laid back vibing through events usually works very well for me but here I felt it didn't fully connect with me. It was nice but the nostalgia is not overtly romanticized nor is it broken down but it doesn't feel like it found a comfortable middle ground either. It felt like it was a bit confused about itself. Since the narration is by a grown-up version of the protagonist, the politics touched upon felt very weird considering it's not entirely a child's view anymore and yet doesn't have any position at all in it. There may be also the fact that I'm not American and the cultural events that would be very precious to many don't mean that much to me personally that made my mind wander through all these thoughts when the focus should've been on the central events.

Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood tells a creative twist on a story we all know well, NASA's moon mission, and makes us think that history is not always as it seems. Based on the childhood fantasies of director Richard Linklater, this animated dramedy perfectly weaves together classic childhood coming-of-age memories, late 1960's pop music and NASA's historic race to moon. This nostalgic movie, set in suburbs of Houston in 1969, follows the childhood of Stan, who is voiced by Milo Coy as a child and Jack Black as an adult. The pressure to get to the moon is ever growing, but NASA builds the lunar module too small, so they turn to Stan to do the job before astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins suit up for their famous Apollo mission. Unfortunately, Stan cannot tell anyone, not even his family. The animation is one of the coolest things about this movie and really sets it apart from other animated films I've seen. It is a mix of live action with hand drawn and computer animation. I also enjoy how accurate it is to the era, so that as a period piece it does not feel artificial. All the clothes, houses, dialogue, objects and even actions reflect that of the time. I always hear my parents talk about their childhood during this era, but I could never really imagine it until I saw this movie. Jack Black is the perfect choice to play adult Stan as his accent is so subtle and his tone is perfect to play an older Stan. And Milo Coy wonderfully captures the personality of a 10 and ½ year old. The message of Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood is that mistakes are okay and that not everything is always as it seems. This movie shows some unhealthy and unsafe practices, which were more common in the 1960's, like smoking, riding in the back of a pickup truck or in cars without seatbelts, and playing with fireworks in the middle of a street. However, the narrator, the adult version of Stan, explains how dangerous these behaviors are. There are also a couple of graphic injury scenes and slight profanity. I give Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 10 to 18, plus adults. Anyone who loves space and maybe even remembers the actual lunar landing will definitely enjoy it also. This movie premiered at South by Southwest on March 13, 2022 and will be on Netflix on April 1, 2022. By Katherine S., KIDS FIRST!

It never began, just got sidetracked IMMEDIATELY into this one nauseating run on sentence by Jack Black about life as a kid in the 70s and listen don't get me wrong because I grew up just like the kids depicted - but ever since stranger things (which I also feel is EXTREMELY overrated and merely dick riding off of nostalga), writers feel if they try to make us relive our childhoods and inundated us with images of our youth, that the endorphins this causes will distract from the sheer lack of substance - well don't be fooled people - this sucks.

This barely even constitutes as a movie. The entire runtime is made up exclusively of the narrator explaining everything that happened in the 60's. Just non-stop, saying "this was popular back then, also this was popular, also this was popular, and this is what kids did back then".