Apollo 11

One giant leap for mankind.

(2019) Documentary (Neon) Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, Deke Slayton, Clifford E. Charlesworth, Bruce McCandless II, H. David Reed, Charles Duke, Gene Kranz, Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, John F. Kennedy, Janet Armstrong, Patricia Mary Finnegan, Andy Aldrin, Walter Cronkite, Richard M. Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, Hugh O’Brian, Joann Morgan, Joan Ann Archer. Directed by Todd Douglas Miller

 

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the landing of men on the moon, NASA sanctioned this documentary, giving filmmaker Miller unprecedented access to their archives, allowing him to use footage that essentially hasn’t been seen before now.

Expertly cut by Miller, the material here is meant to promote the immensity of the task, the majesty of the machines that accomplished it and the heroism of the men who rode inside. The movie succeeds on the first two of these; of the third, it is less successful, giving us little more than glimpses into the astronauts. I suppose if you want to find out more about these men, there are plenty of other places to look. It’s not as if these guys weren’t famous.

One thing about reviewing films that are no longer playing in theaters is that you lose the dimensions that are available for those on large screen formats. If ever a movie deserved to be seen in IMAX it’s this one, where the roar of the engines and the size of the Saturn V really take hold of the imagination. Miller manages to give a kind of “you are there” flare to much of the film, from the chaos of Mission Control (with the audio synched up with the video for the first time, giving us an ear on the various conversations going on behind the scenes) to the in-capsule recordings done by the astronauts themselves, whose footage got them membership in the American Society of Cinematographers back in the day.

Once the lift-off footage is complete, the movie gets a little bit dull; even the very dangerous moon landing itself doesn’t have the dramatic effect of the same scenes done for First Man, the biopic of Armstrong that delighted critics but failed to win a mass audience in 2018. Still, it’s hard not to be impressed with the footage and to get a sense of the times, of the feeling that we could accomplish anything we set our minds to – it’s a mindset the nation has largely lost since then. Considering there are still tinfoil hat-sorts that think the whole thing was a hoax, well, it’s hard to argue with the footage but I suppose they will anyway. In any case, this is wonderfully informational for those who didn’t get to live through the events and for those that did, a nice feeling of nostalgia.

REASONS TO SEE: Some incredible footage. Makes you feel like you were there in the moment.
REASONS TO AVOID: Somewhat dry in the middle. We don’t really get to know the astronauts.
FAMILY VALUES: There is some peril but suitable for the entire family.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The electronic music score was played entirely on instruments that were available in 1969.
BEYOND THE THEATERS: Amazon, AMC On Demand, AppleTV, Fandango Now, Google Play, History Vault, Hulu, Microsoft, Movies Anywhere, Redbox, Vudu, YouTube
CRITICAL MASS: As of 8/3/20: Rotten Tomatoes: 99’% positive reviews, Metacritic: 88/100
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Apollo 13
FINAL RATING: 6.5/10
NEXT: The Cuban

Home

Marcia Gay Harden has just told this little girl that kids suck.

(Monterey Media) Marcia Gay Harden, Eulala Scheel, Michael Gaston, Candy Buckley, Pamela Jane Henning, Paul F. Nolan, Thomas Roy, Marian Seldes. Directed by Mary Haverstick

Home is where the heart is. Have you ever stopped to examine that statement? It’s meant to convey that home is the hearthstone where love resides, but the heart is so much more complicated. It is the source of everything from love to hate. If home is where the heart is, home is where the hate is as well.

Inga (Harden) is a housewife in 1969’s Eastern Pennsylvania in an area that is predominantly Amish. She is a breast cancer survivor, but that was child’s play compared to what’s going on in her house. Her workaholic husband Herman (Gaston) scarcely pays attention to her anymore. The two of them constantly bicker. She takes solace in her close-knit relationship with her daughter Indigo (Scheel) but even that is strained lately.

Inga turns to comfort from the bottle, and that strains the relationship with her daughter even further. The cancer has made a re-appearance, and Inga can’t help but dwell on the last days of her mother (Buckley), wasting away from cancer and morphine addiction, particularly as she tours the house of an elderly woman (Seldes) whose home reminds her of her childhood abode. She wanders through the home, flashing back to her childhood and is more than eager to purchase the home and restore it, but Herman, whose business is failing, refuses and the battle begins anew.

Much of the narration is done through poetry, ostensibly written by Inga but in reality written by the filmmakers mother, Mary Stuart Haverstick. There’s no doubt that the movie is inspired at least in part by the filmmaker’s own experience and it shows in some of the raw emotion of several of the scenes.

Inga is a marvelous mom when she is sober, flying kites and lying in beautiful grassy fields with her daughter, watching the clouds blow past (is there anything more wonderful than a summer’s day in a grassy field, watching clouds with your mom?) but when she drinks, she is Beelzebub. She lashes out at her daughter and all the demons, all the disappointments and frustration come burbling up to be spewed at the most defenseless one in the house.

This is a treatise on home and motherhood, and to the credit of writer/director Haverstick this essay is unflinching and honest, perhaps to a fault. What it also is (occasionally) is maudlin and melodramatic. There are times I wondered if I was watching the Lifetime Movie Channel; this would fit in nicely there.

For my part, I found Harden’s performance to be outstanding. In most other years there would be some Oscar buzz for it, but this came out during a particularly strong year for actress performances; that and because it was distributed by a smaller outfit, it was little seen outside of New York. Nonetheless, as flawed as it is (and it is), there is much to recommend Home for cinephiles. Movies like this can capture your attention and imagination, leading to further reflection on the meaning of home and the relationship between a mother and her child. A movie that inspires you to think? The horror!

WHY RENT THIS: Harden gives a tremendous performance. The film carries a very authentic feeling for the most part.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: A bit on the melodramatic side, and sometimes sinks to a Lifetime movie-of-the-week level.

FAMILY VALUES: There are some disturbing scenes, particularly one in the final third of the movie when Harden goes on a drunken rant against her daughter. Some children may find the things she says to her daughter disturbing.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Scheel is Harden’s daughter in real life.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: None listed.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

TOMORROW: Twilight