SXSW Film Review: Richard Linklater’s ‘Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood’

Do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? Do you remember what adventures you fantasized about having? While some of us may not recall the answers to these questions, Richard Linklater (“Boyhood“) has used his childhood fantasy to create his new film “Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood.” While the space race reached its peak with the launch of NASA’s Apollo Program (1968-1972), the wonder of those years carries on.

much of a movie, but it’s a movie nonetheless.Leto does indeed star as Michael Morbius, a world-renowned physician — talented enough to invent an artificial blood substitute, iconoclastic enough to turn down the Nobel Prize he won for the invention — who has grappled with blood-borne disease since childhood. With the financial support of lifelong friend and fellow patient Milo (Matt Smith), Michael has become a leader in his field, even as he branches out into morally questionable territory, exploring the possibility of grafting vampire-bat DNA with human DNA.Like “The Wasp Woman” and countless other cinematic mad scientists who tampered in God’s domain, Michael tries the experiment on himself, discovering both a cure (he’s strong, buff and can hang from the ceiling) and a curse (he transforms into a fanged creature starved for human blood).

NEW YORK -- Bike rides, kickball, Jiffy Pop, Jell-O and other well-remembered details crowd Richard Linklater’s “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood,” an affectionate ode to his own childhood growing up outside Houston in the late 1960s.NASA and the moon mission are just next door, as are other scientific marvels (Astroturf!). But the sense of wonder that permeates “Apollo 10 ½” is felt just as strongly in the neighborhood streets where kids roam with skinned knees.

Phil Connell’s Jump, Darling (★★★☆☆) is perhaps most notable for featuring one of the last performances of Cloris Leachman’s career.The legendary actress, who passed away at the age of 94 in January 2021, offers a quietly profound, poignant look at Margaret, an elderly woman for whom life no longer has a discernible point. Lonely and isolated in her spacious home in Prince Edward, Canada, Margaret is more than ready to leave these corporeal confines for what lies beyond.When her 30-year-old grandson Russell (Thomas Duplessie) arrives on her doorstep, following a breakup with his boyfriend (the narrative’s weakest storyline), she finds temporary reprieve from her pain.Russell, however, has his own agenda, and as loving as he is, he can be curt and dismissive.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticFor 20 years, ever since Gilbert Gottfried made the tasteless crack that inspired it just a few weeks after 9/11, “Too soon” has been the mantra we use to jokingly suggest someone is making a joke before the time is ripe for it. But the phrase could also be applied to certain music documentaries.

X directed by Ti West, is a new love letter to the slasher film genre. This movie within a movie that aims to tackle the strict relationship between sex, violence, desire, and the rage that manifests when one’s life lacks all of those things. West employs all the tropes involved with pornography and horror and tries to inject personal hints of creativity and originality into the narrative. Will it age well if I watch it again in five years? Probably not. But it provides enough fun and excitement in the current moment to keep audiences engaged.

Director Richard Linklater (“Boyhood”) is known for his versatility; romantic and coming-of-age films, animation, studio films, personal projects, etc., but it looks like he’ll be getting into the business of social documentary filmmaking next. While he’s promoting his upcoming animated Netflix film, “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood” (read our review), which obviously further evinces his adaptability, Linklater revealed to The Hollywood Reporter podcast, Awards Chatter, a new project titled “Letter From Huntsville” for HBO.

young Houstonians with aspirations of fame, fortune, and artistry decide to have a go at making “The Farmer’s Daughter,” a low-budget dirty movie aimed at boosting the cast and crew’s dreams of fame and fortune.Maxine (Mia Goth), a coked-up stripper working at Bayou Burlesque, thinks this is just the ticket to international stardom. Her boyfriend, Wayne (Martin Henderson, “The Gloaming”), acts as the archetypically gung-ho executive producer who talks a great game.

There’s a genuine, welcome sense of play to Richard Linklater’s “Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood,” and it’s present right off the bat, from the opening frames. This Netflix production marks the filmmaker’s return to rotoscope animation, the ingenious and striking drawn-over-the-top method that he brought into the mainstream with “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly.” The technique’s real-but-not qualities were just right for those films, cranking up their (respectively) dreamlike and paranoid qualities; here, the M.O.

The Cow is a film about a mystery that comes with many mysteries of its own, chief among them being the question of why Winona Ryder’s career is so shaped by her past. Stranger Things may have brought her back to the public eye, but it seemed to claim her as an ’80s icon when Ryder only had a walk-on part in that decade’s final reel. Her role in Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 ballet psychodrama Black Swan likewise came with a sting in the casting, pitting Ryder as the outgoing grand dame against Natalie Portman as an ingenue snapping at her heels. And here again, much mention is made of her age when Sandra Bullock—seven years her senior—could lead a bigger movie without a peep.

Presidential Fitness Challenge certificate) to go to the moon before Neil Armstrong to test out a capsule that has accidentally been made too small for adult astronauts. But no sooner does Stan upchuck during his first G-force simulation than adult Stan (Jack Black) hijacks the narration and takes a long detour into the sights and sounds and memories of growing up as a youngest child in late-’60s suburbia.This charming walk down memory lane — which includes everything from “Dark Shadows” to grandparents who remember the Depression to riding to the beach on the back of pick-up trucks and using gasoline-soaked rags to wipe the tar off your feet — is the heart of “Apollo 10 1/2,” and it’s an exhilarating, Proustian wave of reminiscences.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticEverybody knows the name of the first man to step foot on the moon, but how many have heard the story of the kid who walked there before him? Richard Linklater’s “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood” reflects one of the director’s childhood fantasies, informed by growing up in South Texas, a stone’s throw from Johnson Space Center, at the time NASA was trying to do the impossible. “Houston, we have a problem,” he playfully imagines the organization’s top scientists saying, “We accidentally built a lunar module a little too small.” Ergo, they need a 10 1/2-year-old to go up in Neil Armstrong’s place.As someone slightly younger than Linklater who also spent his formative years in Texas, it’s impossible to overstate how much I adore that premise and the collection of associations it brings up for the “Boyhood” director.

“We need more Dollys in the world,” is the message of this raucous but hugely enjoyable comedy, which, at the same time, reminds us that there is—and can only be—one Dolly Parton. The 76-year-old country legend is having quite a moment at SXSW this year, arriving at the festival with a concert to promote her new album (and novel) Run, Rose, Run and her online NFT project Dollyverse, while riding a wave of public goodwill after her philanthropic support of the Covid vaccine with a $1 million donation.