Connect with us
Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood review
Image: Netflix

Film

Linklater’s Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood Does Boomer Nostalgia Exactly Right 

A coming-of-age story set in the suburbs of Houston, Texas in the summer of 1969, centered around the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood Review

There are two things that the movies have given us more than enough of in the last 25 years: Nostalgia for the events of the late 1960s, and nostalgia for the specific youthful Texas experiences of director Richard Linklater. 

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, Linklater’s newest animated movie, offers a great deal of both of those things. Somehow, it’s so well-executed and built on such a great hook, that it’s more than forgivable that we’ve seen so much of this sort of thing before. 

The new film debuted at the South by Southwest festival, in the director’s hometown of Austin, and debuts on April 1 on Netflix, Linklater’s first film for the service, and his first release at all since 2019’s underwhelming Where’d You Go, Bernadette? It’s absolutely outstanding, and Linklater’s best film in several years. 

A Space Age Childhood
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood – Cr: Netflix © 2022

Apollo 10½ uses the same rotoscoped animation that Linklater previously brought to Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, with actors filmed in person and later traced over with animation. But rather than stoned aimlessness or Dickian dystopia, Apollo 10½ is a wistful remembrance of being a kid in suburban Houston in the era of hippies, the Astrodome, and (of course) the Apollo 11 landing. 

From the description, the film sounds like something cliched beyond belief. Stan, the narrator (voiced, in an inspired choice, by Jack Black) looks back on the touchstones of his youth. Yes, it sounds like The Wonder Years, and it’s interspersed with many of the usual Linklater hobbyhorses, including baseball, rock music,  family dynamics, and even 2001: A Space Odyssey. For long stretches, it’s just Black listing stuff he liked when he was a kid, including one moment when he just names 30 different vintage TV shows. 

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood – Cr: Netflix © 2022

Yes, this all sounds cliched as hell, up to and including the film’s extensive use of the type of vintage music that almost always pops up in a late ’60s-set picture (there are at least two songs in it that were also on the Forrest Gump soundtrack.) But once again, Linklater comes at the material with such a unique angle that it all works. 

We see a bit of Stan’s home life, including his parents and a large group of siblings. But the director’s stand-in’s memories are briefly interrupted by a fantastical device in which Stan is asked to personally participate in a NASA mission since they’ve built the lunar module too small for the adult astronauts. The NASA handlings are voiced by Zachary Levi and Glen Powell, who was the breakout in the director’s Everybody Wants Some!! 

The space stuff ties in well with the film’s focus on those times, while it also — shades of Damien Chazelle’s First Man — takes a brief moment to recognize the “Whitey’s on the moon” viewpoint on the moon launch. 

Many of Linklater’s best movies are inspired by his own experiences, from his teenage revelry (Dazed and Confused) to his 20s in Austin (Slacker) to his college baseball career (Everybody Wants Some!!) to the time he met a woman and walked around a city with her for an entire day (Before Sunrise) to his entire childhood (Boyhood.) You can add Apollo 10½ to that list, showing that Linklater hasn’t run out of personal inspiration quite yet. 

  • Stephen Silver
Watch Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood

Now Streaming

Written By

Stephen Silver is a journalist and film critic based in the Philadelphia area. He is the co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle and a Rotten Tomatoes-listed critic since 2008, and his work has appeared in New York Press, Philly Voice, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Tablet, The Times of Israel, and RogerEbert.com. In 2009, he became the first American journalist to interview both a sitting FCC chairman and a sitting host of "Jeopardy" on the same day.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Facebook

Trending

Kendrick Lamar Beats Drake For Album Of The Year At The BET Awards

Celebrity

Andor Creator Tony Gilroy Doesn’t Consider A Key Rogue One Relationship Canon

Film

Simon Guobadia Reportedly Deported To Nigeria After Porsha Williams Drama

Celebrity

‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Renewed for Fifth and Final Season

Film

Fat Joe accused of sex acts with minors in $20 million lawsuit filed by former hype man, rapper denies allegations

Celebrity

The Met’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ Reframes Ancient Tragedy Through the Lens of Propaganda

Film

Lil Wayne “Tha Carter VI” Review

Celebrity

Silento Breaks Silence After Getting Sentenced To 30 Years In Prison For Killing His Cousin

Celebrity

Taylor Rooks Seemingly Responds To Drake’s Mention In Unreleased Song From “ICEMAN” Livestream

Celebrity

Tyler Perry Pops Out At Beyonce Show In Paris Amid Sexual Assault Lawsuit

Celebrity

15 Best Military Movies Of All Time, Ranked

Film

YNW Melly’s Family Shows Up To Support Him At Court Hearing

Celebrity

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Review: The Best Trek In Decades Doesn’t Miss A Beat

Film

Mello Buckzz’s Boyfriend Shot-&-Killed During Her Mixtape Release Party

News

F1 Review: Brad Pitt’s Sports Drama Has Exciting Racing Scenes And A Bloated Runtime

Film

Trippie Redd Reportedly Arrested In Miami For Mysterious Reasons

Celebrity

Connect