Category Archives: 2020

The Midnight Sky

The Midnight Sky             2 stars

The Midnight Sky, directed by and starring George Clooney was released at the end of 2020 during the pandemic but I never heard of it until over a year later. Judging by its media presence few people had seen it. This science fiction drama concerns a reclusive genius scientist named Augustine Lofthouse who has isolated himself at an arctic research station as a catastrophe threatens to destroy most of the human population on Earth. So you know right away that we are in for some heavy drama of the hopeless variety. Added to the mix is a group of astronauts and scientists who are headed back to Earth after a several years long mission to investigate the habitat on a distant moon of the planet Jupiter. Unfortunately, no one has informed the crew of the spaceship of the recent developments back home. So it falls on Augustine to find a way to contact them and reveal the bad news and warn them that they would be better off not returning to Earth. (Nevermind that his communication with the ship happens instantaneously despite the fact that the ship is still in deep space.) We are never told exactly what happened, but we assume there must be a radioactive atmosphere around most of the planet due to some human activity. The movie moves at a very slow pace and has an ominous tone to it that really gets depressing. There are a few flashbacks to the young Augustine where we find out he had a promising family life at some point and that it all changed leading him to a lonely life. Some harrowing moments are experienced by Augustine and by the ship’s crew that they manage to survive, but this does little to take us away from the doomed feeling we get from the film. There is nothing fun or for that matter thrilling about the movie. It certainly is no Gravity. There is a plot twist in the movie that I won’t describe, but will only say that I thought the filmmakers were setting this up in a deceptive manner by holding back certain facts until they are revealed at the end. I have not appreciated this type of plot device in other movies and was sorry to see it here. There must be better ways to treat the subject of global disaster than what The Midnight Sky has done. I will say that the special effects used to create the spaceship were impressive. If only they had been used in a better movie.

My Octopus Teacher

My Octopus Teacher      5 stars

I finally saw the 2021 Academy Award winning documentary “My Octopus Teacher” by documentarian Craig Foster. Foster filmed his underwater encounters with the eight-legged subject in the waters off South Africa near his home after going through a period of crisis in his own life. In the film he made daily trips to the kelp forest where all sorts of colorful creatures live and followed the life of a single female octopus, bringing the experience to a personal level. It isn’t a film of scientific study but succeeds in showing what it takes for this animal to survive in the sea, including escaping from the sharks that prey on the octopus and finding ways to catch its own source of food. He does all this using just a snorkel and without a wetsuit allowing him to get close to the animal which reacts to him with curiosity. He even catches a close encounter with one of those hungry sharks followed by a long period of recovery for the mollusk. The film is only a little over an hour and a half long but by the end you feel that you understand something about this creature that is almost an alien to humans. For nature lovers this is one that should not be missed.

The One and Only Ivan

The One and Only Ivan   3 stars

The One and Only Ivan was brought to us in 2020 by Disney and stars Sam Rockwell as a silverback gorilla, Ivan who is kept in a cage and serves as the main attraction at a small-time mall, video-arcade managed by Mack (Brian Cranston). This combination live action-CGI film is intended primarily for children and is told in a quiet manner, focusing on how the animals feel about their situation. The computer animation is excellent, but the movie lacks the action one would associate with the usual Disney style for children’s movies. Also included among the mall animals are an elephant named Stella (Angelina Jolie), a chicken named Henrietta (Chaka Khan), a glam poodle named Snickers (Helen Mirren) and Bob, a lovable mutt (Danny DeVito) who provides the comic effect. This unlikely crew vacillates between wanting to put on a good show for a dwindling audience and longing for a better life away from captivity. But it is only when owner Mack tries to get Ruby (Brooklynn Prince), a very young elephant to perform on her own that Ivan feels driven to action. The movie is based on a popular children’s novel by Katherine Applegate which itself is based on a real life gorilla named Ivan who lived for 27 years in a cage in a mall and was ultimately moved to the open spaces of Zoo Atlanta after getting the attention of protesters decrying the living conditions of the ape. The script is by Mike White who also did School of Rock. The movie is a good one for the kids but may go a little light on its subject of animal captivity. It is available on Disney +.

Four Good Days

Four Good Days                 4 stars

I took in Four Good Days, a movie that previously appeared at Sundance and that deals with that old subject of drug addiction and the effect it has on those around the addict. In this drama by Rodrigo Garcia we are graced with two excellent actresses: Glenn Close as Deb, the addict’s mother who has been burned too many times by her daughter’s lies and thievery, and Mila Kunis as Molly, the addict with a heroin habit that has lasted for ten years and has lost everything including her marriage and her children. The movie starts with the two meeting and Molly begging for help from Deb with the shocking appearance of her skin and hair making it clear what her life has been like, but Deb refusing her daughter because she has seen it all before and won’t be fooled again. But finally she relents, taking Molly to a detox facility. Once there the doctor informs them there is a drug, Naltrexone that will neutralize the addiction for a month, but Molly must be drug free for four more days before taking it. And her only option is to stay with Mom and her husband Chris, (Stephen Root) until she can take the drug. Here is where the drama sets in. Deb knows she cannot trust Molly and lets her stay in the garage where a door alarm will sound whenever the door opens. We know that Molly could relapse at any time, but we still root for her hoping these two can find a way. And we really feel for Deb who is in anguish every step of the way over the hard choices she has to make. Most aspects of this movie are familiar as we get more background about the characters and how they got to this point. The desire to blame others for their problems is a constant theme. The story is based on the lives of actual people who we see at the end. It is the performances of the two principal actors that make the story especially compelling. Incidentally, Glenn Close and Rodrigo Garcia previously worked together on Albert Knobs in 2011.