BEFORE: It's a bit of a weird time for me, with both "Oppenheimer" and "Barbie" on my list, the linking possibilities are wide open - I could have, for example, linked straight to "Oppenheimer" from "A Haunting in Venice", via Kenneth Branagh. And I could link directly to "Barbie" from today's film, via Alexandra Shipp. But let's not be too hasty about this, because remember, the two films do NOT link to each other. Anything they share in common because they were both released on the same day last year is merely a weird bit of marketing that went viral for no reason. Even when the news sites or the reviewers talk about the confluence, everyone's quick to point out that there's nothing really THERE, nothing to be gained by watching the two movies back-to-back. Great, so then please shut up about it.
I know, I said I would get straight to "Oppenheimer" as soon as possible after the romance chain ended, and we're past that point. But I've waited this long, I can wait a couple more days. I could save that big film to be Big Movie #4,700, only that's also only a milestone, a thing, just because I say it is. Oppenheimer's (the man's) birthday is April 22, but I don't want to wait that long. Look, just give me a couple days, I'll get there - normally at this point in the month I'd be typing out my links for the month, only I don't have them for April yet. I've been busy, OK? And I found ways to GET to "Oppenheimer", but I haven't quite figured out where to go next, because I could go just about anywhere, and I have to make sure there's a path to Mother's Day, Father's Day and July 4 - and it's all about where I put the documentaries. Or maybe it isn't, maybe I'll make it work no matter what, and I'm just bogging myself down in my own organization routines. Whatever, I've got a system and I have to play it out. But in the meantime, let me pick up a few more films on the Road to Oppenheimer.
Kyle Allen carries over from "A Haunting in Venice".
THE PLOT: A man seeks help from an insurance company to plan his one-way trip to Mars.
AFTER: I watched most of this film at the theater, while on a particularly long Tuesday shift where there was hardly anything to do. It's not explicitly against the rules, though it probably should feel a bit wrong, to watch a movie while at work, and also a bit wrong to watch a movie via the Hulu streaming site, when I work at a movie theater. (Streaming sites are the enemies of movie theaters, right?). But here's the thing, and it's true of this film, and also "A Haunting in Venice" - both films screened at that theater, and I was too busy working at the screenings to sit and watch the films, that's also completely against the rules, almost. Sure, it's maybe a bit fuzzy because I have done that, too, well technically I was "monitoring the screening" to ensure the best possible visual and audio experience for the patrons. If there were any technical problems with the screening, of course I would be able to report them to the projectionists right away via my walkie-talkie, and that HAS happened before, it could happen again. But sure, primarily I'm not working there to watch movies, I'm working there to make a little extra money by sacrificing shift-sized chunks of my own life, that's one way to look at it. Catching the occasional first-run film is just a handy little perk. But thanks to my system, I could theoretically watch "Godzilla vs. Kong: The Rematch" or "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" this month, only I am NOT READY to review them, because I do this stupid linking thing - so both will probably be streaming by the time I catch up. Catching up, right, let's call it that. I watched "Space Oddity" during my shift because I was catching up, I think it played during the Tribeca Festival, and I was on shift then too. Look, firefighters get to eat dinner and even sleep at the firehouse during their shifts, so me watching a movie once in a while during a 12-hour shift should be OK, as long as nothing goes wrong with the event, which it did not. (Now I'm typing this review during another shift the next day, but that's another story...)
It can be a mysterious process - why watch THIS film, any film, instead of THAT one? Why are we drawn to certain films, and not other ones? Certain films are culturally important, sure, but they can't ALL be that? And certainly if you loved "Aquaman" then you have a greater chance of liking "Aquaman 2", although that's not always the case, you might feel like a franchise has lost its way, even with the second film. But you'll be more likely to WATCH "Aquaman 2", at least, if you liked the first one. Then sometimes it's a genre thing, or a penchant you may have for a particular actor - I've managed to transcend most of these petty little rules, because I've determined that rather than try to decide what to watch, I can plan to watch everything, even a film I think I'm likely to hate, and then sort it all out later. Most of the time, anyway - I still have a few franchises that I can't get into. But, never say "never", right? "Space Oddity" has been on my radar for a long time, first because I have a friend who lives in Rhode Island, and they filmed some scenes right in his town, so I got a few reports about Hollywood people being seen around town and a veranda being built, it's a small enough town that any filming taking place there is bound to cause a stir. Then maybe a year later I saw the film listed in the program for the Tribeca Film Festival, and I thought, "Hey, is that THAT film? The one that filmed in Rhode Island, near where my friend lives?" And yep, it was, and they screened it in the theater where I work, and Kyra Sedgwick was there to present the film and take a few questions after. OK, now I really had to see it, even if I did mostly forget about it until I saw it posted on Hulu when I signed in to watch something else. Either way, mission accomplished, I tracked it and finally watched it.
It's about a family dealing with a tragic loss, the death of one child/sibling out of three, and they're each still dealing with it (or not dealing) in their own ways. Alex has taken to training for a one-way trip to Mars, and he's serious about it, as far as we can tell - but his sister and father are choosing to not believe him, or they feel that he's not being practical and should choose another career path. Meanwhile, his mother is just glad that he's not lying in bed all day, and seems to have found a direction in life, though it's an unusual one. Whether this is all his way of not dealing with his brother's death is TBD. Alex's father is a flower farmer, and tries to shoot down Alex's dream of space travel at every opportunity - which only seems ironic because his father is played by Kevin Bacon, who's famous in part for the film "Footloose", where he was the teen with the dream, he just wanted to dance in a conservative town where dancing was not allowed, and other people kept taking delight in shooting down HIS dream. Oh, how the tables have apparently turned for Ren McCormack...sure, I know that's a totally different film, but I can't help but point out the reversal of fortune.
Alex needs a few things before he can qualify for this space mission, he needs the local doctor to sign off on his physical and mental health, and he needs the local insurance agent to arrange a policy for him, because anything can happen on this trip to Mars, and apparently it's a one-way trip, there's no return planned because of the speed with which this new venture is planning the trip. Some characters raise the possibility that this whole "Mission to Mars" thing is some kind of scam, and that also seems to be TBD. This is probably what took so long for NASA to get a man to walk on the moon, they were planning a two-way trip. Sure, anybody could have launched a rocket and sent a person TO the moon, but getting them back home was a totally different challenge. I can almost hear the conversation behind the scenes at NASA: "Wait, you want the astronauts to survive? And return to Earth? Well, that's going to take us another 10 years to figure out....you should have said something about this earlier!"
Alex seems surprisingly OK with saying good-bye to his family, and he doesn't seem to have any friends, so the only thing that could possibly interfere with his plans to get married, have kids and die on planet Mars would be if he started having feelings for the niece of his insurance agent, the really attractive one who's easy to talk to and also really fun to be around. His family all seem to like Daisy, too, so I'm sure they'd like nothing better for him to settle down and take over the flower farm, but dreams die hard, I guess. It goes both ways, though, because if your dream is for your son to take over your farm and he doesn't want to do it, well then you maybe have to consider handing it over to your daughter instead. Life therefore becomes this weird combination of what we WANT to do and what we are ABLE to do. You have to have both motivation AND opportunity. Like, did I ever think I'd go back to working in a movie theater, like I did 35 years ago? Nah, I never saw it coming, but the pandemic shook up my career and I had to re-adjust.
Anyway it's a heartfelt notion to suggest that things may not work out the way you planned, but at least they have a fair chance of working out in some way, and that's maybe all you can hope for in this life. Will humans make it to Mars in our lifetimes? I have no idea - we visited NASA back in 2018 and we saw the proposed spacecrafts that may take them there, but plans are just crazy ideas until they happen, as this movie correctly points out.
Also starring Alexandra Shipp (last seen in "Tick, Tick...BOOM!"), Madeline Brewer (last seen in "Captive State"), Kevin Bacon (last seen in "Val"), Simon Helberg (last seen in "Annette"), Carrie Preston (last seen in "The Stepford Wives"), Arden Myrin (last seen in "Morning Glory"), Chris Jackson (also last seen in "Tick, Tick...BOOM!"), Alfre Woodard (last seen in "The Gray Man"), Andrew Polk (last seen in "The Many Saints of Newark"), Alessandra Rosenfeld (last seen in "The Equalizer 2"), Peter McSwiggin, Jim Boyd (last seen in "Spenser Confidential"), Liam Anderson, Tony Estrella, Pamela Jayne Morgan, Becky Bass (last seen in "Love, Weddings &Other Disasters"), Mary Ann Schaub, Sean Leser, Jack Hueter
RATING: 6 out of 10 baseballs hit at the batting cage
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