Top Gun: Maverick

Year:  2022

Director:  Joseph Kosinski

Screenplay:  Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer

Running Time:  131 minutes

Genre:  Action, drama

US Navy test pilot, Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Cruise) is ordered to return to the elite fighter training school known as "Top Gun" train some of the best Top Gun graduates for a seemingly impossible mission.  To complicate matters, one of Maverick's students, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Teller), is the son of Maverick's former co-pilot and close friend Goose, who was killed in an accident during their time at Top Gun in the 1980s.

Top Gun (1986) is possibly one of the most beloved films of the 1980s, and it is extremely risky to return to such a popular film over thirty years later.  Top Gun: Maverick opens with a virtually shot-for-shot remake of the opening of the original Top Gun, the same music, the same opening text explaining what Top Gun is, the same scenes of fighter jets lifting off of aircraft carriers to the strains of Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" and even the same typeface for the credits.  After this, Top Gun: Maverick settles down to it's own thing, while still delivering enough call backs and references to the original to satisfy nostalgic '80s kids. Maverick follows the same basic plot structure as the original but, in the original, the goal for the pilots is to win the Top Gun Trophy, in this film the goal is to complete this almost impossible mission and return alive, immediately raising the stakes.  While the first Top Gun is bookended by aerial scraps against the enemy (who are not identified in either film, but you can probably guess who they are supposed to be) they almost seem like add ons to provide some drama and action.  In both films the enemy pilots are completely dehumanised, rendered faceless by the black visors and full face masks.  Tom Cruise, reprising his star making role, does what he does best, with his mega-watt smile and movie star charisma undimmed despite the passage of years.  Miles Teller is good as Rooster, the son of Maverick's best friend Goose, who dies in the first film.  Rooster hates Maverick, blaming him not only for his father's death, but also for apparently sabotaging his career.  Jennifer Connelly does what she can with a fairly underwritten role as bar-owner Penny, Maverick's love interest.  As with the first film, women don't have much to do, however at least here there are a couple of female pilots.  The film is tense, and has some real excitement in the aviation sequences.  It has humour, drama and some emotion.  While the film is as pro-military as the first, and will doubtless cause applications to the US Navy to climb higher and faster than one of Maverick's jets, it is most of all a perfect example of a real summer blockbuster.

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood

Year:  2022

Director:  Richard Linklater

Screenplay:  Richard Linklater

Starring:  Milo Coy, Glen Powell, Zachary Levi, Jack Black

Running Time:  98 minutes

Genre: Coming-of-age, animation

Houston, 1969:  Nine year old Stan (Coy) lives with his family near the NASA complex, and, like everyone else, is fascinated by the impending Apollo 11 Moon launch.  As lift off approaches, Stan imagines himself as an astronaut travelling to the Moon.

Loosely based on the childhood of writer, director and producer Richard Linklater, the film interweaves a warmly nostalgic look at being a child in 1969 with a fictional story of a nine year old boy who is persuaded by NASA to be the actual first person on the Moon, because they made the space capsule too small for an adult.  Narrated by Jack Black as an adult Stan looking back, the film is at it's best in it's look at Stan's daily life in 1969 and the hype surrounding the Moon landing, which is ever present.  Stan's family live in the shadow of NASA, and his Dad works on the Apollo 11 mission, and most of Stran's friend's parents work at NASA at some capacity.  It does acknowledge some of the troubles in America at the time: protests, assassinations, riots and the constant presence of the Vietnam war.  It also touches on the fact that the Moon landings were controversial, a lot of people thought that it was a waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere.  Also there is the fact that Stan's world is quite dangerous.  There is frequent corporal punishment, from teachers, parents and friend's parents, and the kids live a kind of carefree existence where they are exposed to risks that would be unthinkable to 21st century parents.  However, for the most part, it depicts the world of the 1960s as an idyllic time.  The film is animated in a technique called 'rotoscoping' where scenes are shot with live actors and then the animation is traced over the footage.  Linklater had previously used the technique in Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006). The animation is particularly effective in the frequent clips from movies and TV shows, as well as news footage.  The performances are good, and, mixing the historical with the personal, the film is a warm look at a very particular time and place.

 

Milo Coy in Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood

Everybody Wants Some!!

Year of Release:  2016
Director:  Richard Linklater
Screenplay:  Richard Linklater
Starring:  Blake Jenner, Zoey Deutch, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Glen Powell, Wyatt Russell
Running Time:  116 minutes
Genre:  Comedy, drama

The film is set in September, 1980, at a Texas university and is set over the three days before class starts.  Freshman Jake (Jenner) arrives on a baseball scholarship and movers into the house that he will be sharing with other members of the baseball team.  Over the course of the resulting few days, they banter, bond, insult each other, play pranks, party, get stoned, get drunk and try to pick up girls.

Richard Linklater is a talented and prolific filmmaker who successfully moves between experimental films such as Waking Life (2001) and mainstream studio fare such as School of Rock (2003).  However, he is possibly best identified with meandering, dialogue-driven films such as Before Sunrise (1995) and the award-winning Boyhood (2014).  Everybody Wants Some!! can be seen as a follow up to his 1993 film Dazed and Confused, which is set over the last day of high school in 1976, and the two have a very similar feel.  Linklater has also said that he considers it a "spiritual sequel" to Boyhood, with Everybody Wants Some!! picking up from where Boyhood ends.  Nothing much really happens in this film, and there isn't really any story, it's guys partying and having a great time.  There is a strong nostalgic feel to it.  Linklater wrote the script based on his own experiences of playing baseball in college, and the film unambiguously celebrates these jock frat boys and there are no real consequences to any of their actions, and they are depicted throughout as loveable japesters.
It is worth pointing out the film's depiction of female characters.  There is only one prominent female character and she doesn't really appear much until towards the end, and women are depicted mainly as love interests, or for the guys to hit on, and it has to be said that some of the guys don't really have great attitudes towards women, to put it mildly. 
It is maybe not one of Linklater's best, but it is a funny, warm and amiable film, with a great soundtrack, full of classic rock.

Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechlin and Ryan Guzman in Everybody Wants Some!!