I don’t usually hit up documentaries, but something about the premise of Good Night Oppy tugged at my heartstrings, and I’m glad I watched it on Prime this weekend. It is the story of the twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity: their planning, launch, and long missions exploring our sister planet. The movie does a great job of making these little robots feel alive, with NASA and JPL staff, those who built the robots and operated them, openly talking about how they felt like parents to these little engines that could. Shot into space 3 weeks apart in 2003, at a time when 75% of previous missions to Mars had ended in failure, there’s jubilation that the rovers even made it there and landed successfully. Spirit, who even during testing on Earth was always a bit more troublesome, proved just as finicky on Mars, but “Oppy” always just chugged along. The mission was supposed to last 90 days, that was the “warranty” on these machines, at which time the engineers suspected that they wouldn’t have enough power to keep going. Spirit ended up going over 6 years (Earth time), and Oppy went over 14 years before finally not waking up after a 6 month dust storm. The film is at times exhilarating and heart aching, and ultimately you come away with profound respect for these tiny, plucky robots who explored a planet alone, teaching us a lot about our closest neighbor, and giving hints about possible life outside of our planet. ★★★★★
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is the second Marvel special available via streaming on Disney+. As the title says, it brings the popular Guardians in for a Christmas movie. After the death of Gamora in Avengers Infinity War, Drax the Destroyer and Mantis want to bring some joy to Quill, and they get the idea to bring a piece of home (Earth) to him. The two make the trip to Earth at Christmas time and go to kidnap one of Quill’s childhood heroes, Kevin Bacon, and take him back to Nowhere as a gift. Hijinks ensue. Like the other Marvel Special, it’s a short film at 44 minutes, and it is a typical holiday film, i.e., lots of fluff (albeit in the Marvel setting), but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. Drax is always funny, and the whole team makes at least a cameo too, including Nebula, Rocket, and Groot. Disney doesn’t mind paying out checks to bring the stars back, even for a short like this, I guess. For those that say the Marvel films are feeling stale with formulaic plots, these Specials have really set a standard for something different, and both have been fantastic so far. I can’t wait to see what else Marvel cooks up in the future for this platform. ★★★★
Murina takes place off the coast of Croatia and focuses on Julija, a 17-year-old girl living with her parents on a remote island there. Despite the idyllic setting, Julija dreams of other places, and is fascinated by a sailboat docked close by, full of college kids partying day and night. Her dad Ante is domineering and often verbally abusive; Julija doesn’t know why her mom Nela, a local beauty, takes it. The family is visited one weekend by Javier, a wealthy investor who once employed Ante and dated Nela. Ante is attempting to sell his land to Javier with the intent to have it developed into a resort. As the weekend progresses, we learn more about the past relationships between the adults, all while Julija succumbs to Javier’s charms. Javier drops hints that his kids go to the best private school in Switzerland, and that if Julija were his daughter, she’d realize her dream of going to Harvard. Julija believes that when he leaves, he will take her with him so that she can finally escape this tiny island where nothing ever happens. Ante warns Julija that Javier is a typical rich playboy, and that he’ll use any resource presented to him but cast it (her) aside as soon as he grows bored. The film does a fantastic job of showing there is no clear black or white, good guy or bad guy, but instead varying shades of grey (though Ante’s behavior, especially towards his daughter a the film goes along, makes it hard to root for him in particular). Strong acting from the 3 elder actors, all experienced (including Cliff Curtis as Javier), but unfortunately the lead, Gracija Filipović as Julija, is not a star yet. She often delivers her lines emotionlessly, with dead eyes that star off to nowhere, and with the camera focused squarely on her so there’s no place to hide. It’s the sole weakness (and a glaring one) in an otherwise gripping international indie film. ★★★
Don’t Worry Darling looked so, so good in the previews, and I was excited to see it from day 1. Unfortunately upon release, reviews were rough, so I shelved it until it hit streaming. Now having seen it, it does have its problems (a real lack of originality being the biggest), but it’s not all that bad. It helps that you have Florence Pugh, a powerhouse young actress, in the lead. In the film, her character, Alice, is living in a quaint 50s small rural town with her husband, Jack (Harry Styles). Jack and all of the men in the town are employed by a company called Victory, located outside of town in the middle of the desert. Only the men are allowed there, the women cannot leave the town, and spend the day cleaning and shopping, à la stereotypical 1950s. But there’s something very wrong here. One wife, Margaret, starts having problems. She went into the desert with her son one day, and returned without him; the story is the boy died, but Margaret says he was taken as punishment for leaving the town. At a neighborhood party, Alice witnesses Margaret kill herself, but the official story later states that it was an accident. After awhile, Alice too begins having troubling visions, and begins to suspect a larger menace. When she tries to ask Jack what it is that he and the men do all day, he gives the company answer that they can’t talk about it. All of this is leading to the big reveal, which I’m not going to spoil. Unfortunately it isn’t as surprising as you’d hope, borrowing heavily from other sci-fi films (and some iconic ones at that), but while the ending is a bit of a letdown, the journey there is pretty fun. Pugh is fantastic as a woman losing her grip on the reality around her, though director Olivia Wilde did better with a small comedy than with a bigger budget. ★★★
Disenchanted, the followup to the massive (and surprising) hit Enchanted, picks up 10 years after the first film. Giselle (Amy Adams) and husband Robert (Patrick Dempsey) are moving from New York out to the suburbs, to find a quieter spot for their happily ever after. After the move, they are visited from Andalasia by King Edward and Queen Nancy, who bestow Giselle’s and Robert’s baby daughter with a gift: a magic wish-granting wand. The rules states only a true son or daughter from Andalasia can use it, so just Giselle and the baby. Initially, Morgan (Robert’s daughter from the first film, now a teenager) has problems at her new school, and overwhelmed with problems settling in, Giselle picks up the wand and wishes that life could be easy like a fairy tale village. That’s what she gets, with Monroeville becoming Monrolasia overnight, unfortunately it isn’t what she expected. The town’s “queen,” Malvina (Maya Rudolph), becomes its evil queen, and Giselle herself, a stepmother to Morgan, starts showing “cruel stepmother” traits. She has until the stroke of midnight to undo the wish, but the wand has been stolen by Malvina’s minions, though she herself can’t use it since she’s not from Andalasia. As Giselle becomes more wicked with each progressing hour, it falls upon Morgan to fix the problem. The movie starts slow, but definitely picks up in the final half. Though it lacks some of the wonder of the first film (which I absolutely loved), and the songs aren’t quite as lasting, this one is still an entertaining trip full of magic. ★★★½
- TV series currently watching: Peaky Blinders (seasons 1+2)
- Book currently reading: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Jons Movie Takes 