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

Rebel Without a Cause

Year:  1955

Director:  Nicholas Ray

Screenplay:  Stewart Stern and Irving Schulman, based on a story by Nicholas Ray

Starring:  James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen, William Hopper

Running Time:  111 minutes

Genre:  Drama, coming of age

Los Angeles:  Jim Stark (Dean) is the new kid in town, but is already in trouble with the law for drunkenness.  Starting a new school he falls for Judy (Wood), the girlfriend of Buzz (Allen), leader of the local gang, and befriends troubled kid Plato (Mineo).  Buzz violently challenges Jim to a game of "Chicken" which leads to tragic consequences.

James Dean made three feature films before his tragic death in 1955 at the age of 24, shortly before the release of Rebel Without a Cause.  However his legacy and impact on popular culture resonates even to this day, and it is largely due to his role in Rebel Without a Cause.  This is arguably one of the first real teen films, and rather than see the problem of teenager hood  through the eyes of the disapproving adult characters, it is seen through the eyes of the teens, who are treated sympathetically.  Jim Stark is essentially good, compassionate person, who is confused and mixed up by his lecturing mother and well-meaning, but weak-willed father; Judy craves affection from her father who she believes hates her since she turned sixteen and is no longer "Daddy's little girl"; Plato has been abandoned by his wealthy family and is looked after by the family's kindly maid.  Together they form a strange, surrogate family, with Jim and Judy taking on the parental roles, with Plato as their son, it's also pretty obvious that Plato is in love with Jim, who is in love with Judy and possibly Plato as well.  Dean manages to convey a lot of often conflicting emotions at the same time.  The scene where he comes upon his father (Jim Backus), wearing a ludicrously frilly apron, dropping a tray of food for Jim's mother, which he scrambles to pick up, and Jim looks on at him with an expression of mingled contempt, sorrow, love and sympathy.  Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo also give striking performances, and Dennis Hopper appears as one of the gang members.  The film is very dated now, but it is still exciting, and some of the action is still surprisingly strong, such as the knife fight and the "chicken" race.  It may be difficult for some to sympathise with the teenage angst of these materially privileged, suburban, middle-class kids, but it is portrayed convincingly.  Even though a lot of it has dated, elements of it are still effective today, and it is the film that made James Dean a legend.

Ann Doran, James Dean and Jim Backus in Rebel Without a Cause

Belfast

Year: 2001

Director:  Kenneth Branagh

Screenplay:  Kenneth Branagh

Starring:  Caitríona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Morgan, Jude Hill

Running Time:  97 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Belfast, 1969:  Nine year old Buddy (Hill) lives with his family in a close knit working-class Protestant neighbourhood.  One day rioters violently attack the homes of the few Catholic families that live on the street.  Buddy's father (Dornan) who works in England, and is only able to see his family once every two weeks, believes that Belfast is becoming too dangerous and wants the family to emigrate, however Buddy's mother (Balfe) doesn't want to leave her home and also doesn't believe they have the means, due to the family being under severe financial pressure.  As tensions escalate, both at home and on the street, Buddy is also preoccupied with the business of being a nine year old boy, playing football on the streets, reading comics, going to the beloved local cinema, and trying to get the seat next to the prettiest girl in class.

The film opens with colour images of present-day Belfast before moving back in time to a monochrome 1969, telling the story of growing up as The Troubles escalate.  The Troubles have featured in numerous films and television series, from The Crying Game (1992) and In the Name of the Father (1993) to Derry Girls (2018- ).  After the riot at the beginning of the film, the streets are barricaded and soldiers guard the area, also sinister local criminal Billy Clanton (played by Colin Morgan) demands that local residents join in the fighting, either actively or with money.  Buddy's father adamantly refuses to join, and Billy becomes increasingly threatening and violent.  However, the focus of the film is not really the Troubles, but Buddy and his family, in amongst all of the tension they live their lives, argue over money, share jokes, go to the cinema, and the children play in the streets.  The film is very funny, and often extremely moving.  There are fantastic performances from Caitríona Balfe and Jamie Dornan as Buddy's parents, and warm performances from Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds as Buddy's loving grandparents.  Special mention however has to be given to newcomer Jude Hill who plays Buddy, and gives a wonderful performance.  The film is mostly in crisp black-and-white, however when Buddy goes to the cinema everything bursts into colour, which is a wonderful way of depicting the magic of film.  Kenneth Branagh, who wrote the script based on his own childhood experiences growing up in Belfast, is a prolific, if uneven, director, but he has made some excellent films and this is among his very best.

Caitríona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Jude Hill and Lewis McAskie in Belfast

Over the Edge

 Year of Release:  1979

Director:  Jonathan Kaplan

Screenplay:  Charles S. Haas and Tim Hunter

Starring:  Michael Kramer, Matt Dillon, Pamela Ludwig, Vincent Spano, Harry Northup, Tom Fergus

Running Time:  95 minutes

Genre:  Coming-of-age, crime, drama

In the isolated planned community of New Granada, Colorado, the adults live quiet peaceful lives in their nice houses, while their teenage kids have nothing to do except hang around at the local recreation centre (which closes at 6PM) and get into trouble.  As the instances of vandalism and other crimes committed by the kids increases, they become harassed by hated local cop Sgt. Doberman (Northup).  When the recreation centre is closed, the tensions between adults and kids escalates into violence.

This film was based on a 1973 news article from the San Francisco Examiner about gangs of kids called "Mousepacks" who had been causing chaos in a middle-class planned community in California.  The film does a good job at depicting the bland, dull and entirely white community of New Granada, where the affluent residents are more concerned about property resale values than the fact that there is nothing to do there.  The kids have a recreation centre which is little more than a large barn, and which closes at 6PM.  A planned cinema and bowling alley is revealed to have been scrapped for a business park.  The kids hang around, argue, get into fights, drink, take drugs and do pretty much what kids everywhere do.  They really are just ordinary kids, not particularly good or bad, just bored.  The adults however treat them as a problem to be locked away or yelled at, instead of talking to them.  The characters in the film are all pretty solidly middle-class and are fairly comfortable.  The kids live in large, nice houses, with plenty of cool stuff, but they are pretty much cast adrift.  This may make it sound like a worthy, message film, but, while it is a message film, it is fun, exciting and entertaining, although it does drag occasionally towards the middle.  The kids, which include a 14 year old Matt Dillon in his film debut, look and talk like real teenagers.  It also boasts a cool seventies soundtrack including Van Halen, Cheap Trick, The Cars and The Ramones.  It all comes to a satisfyingly apocalyptic conclusion.  The film wasn't a big success on it's first release, and someone had the baffling idea to market it as a horror film with a poster that made it look like Village of the Damned:  The High School Years, however it has become something of a cult film.  Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain named it as his favourite film, and it influenced the music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit", as well as influencing the Richard Linklater film Dazed and Confused (1993).  It has inevitably dated, there are no people of colour and the kids frequently use homophobic slurs, but it still feels relevant and packs a real punch.  

The Kids Aren't All Right:  Matt Dillon and Michael Kramer go Over the Edge

  

"The Member of the Wedding" by Carson McCullers

 Year of Publication:  1946

Length:  179 pages

Genre:  Coming-of-age

The novel takes place over a few days in August in a small town in the Southern United States during World War Two.  Twelve year old Frances Jasmine "Frankie" Addams is a lonely, bored, but highly imaginative girl.  Her closest companions are the family's African American maid, Berenice, and Frankie's six year old cousin, John Henry.  She becomes fascinated with her brother's upcoming wedding and determines to involve herself in the wedding, and run off with the happy couple on their honeymoon.

This is an economical, beautifully written tale about growing up.  While written in the third person the narrative never leaves Frankie's perception of the world around her, a world that is seemingly safe but full of darkness and sharp edges. Frankie is imaginative and very intelligent, but very impulsive and foolhardy.  Her cousin, John Henry, she regards as a nuisance and also a companion.  Her mother is dead, and her father lives in the house, but is a largely absent figure, who seems to have little to no understanding of Frankie and her needs.  Her main caregiver and probably closest friend is Berenice, who is the only one who seems to really understand Frankie, and certainly the only one who really seems to make an effort to understand her, she also presents a different and more complex world to Frankie and the reader.  Berenice is a cleverly and sensitively drawn character.  While race is not a key theme in the novel, it is definitely present.  One of the most disturbing elements in the book is Frankie's meeting with an unnamed soldier, and there is darkness throughout the book.  It has elements of gentle nostalgia, but there is cruelty at it's core.  It takes place during the Second World War, which is discussed throughout, contrasting the small seemingly unchanging town, with the chaos and tumult going on in the world outside.  The book's key incident, the wedding itself, barely features, brushed over in a few paragraphs, it exists in the world of hope and memory.  

Crooklyn

Year of Release:  1994
Director:  Spike Lee
Screenplay:  Joie Susannah Lee, Cinque Lee and Spike Lee, based on a story by Joie Susannah lee
Starring:  Alfre Woodward, Delroy Lindo, Zelda Harris, Spike Lee
Running Time:  115 minutes
Genre:  Drama, comedy, coming of age

This semi-autobiographical directed by Spike Lee, and co-written by Lee and his siblings, Cinque and Joie Susannah.  The film is set over the spring and summer of 1973 in a tough but close-knit neighbourhood in Brooklyn, New York, and focuses on nine year old Troy Carmichael (Harris) growing up with four rowdy brothers and her troubled by loving parents:  Strict school teacher Carolyn (Woodward), who holds the family together, and ambitious but naive musician Woody (Lindo), who had some success with pop music covers in the past but now wants to concentrate exclusively on his own music.

The film is colourful, lively and is unusually light for a Spike Lee film, however there is still plenty of grit.  The neighbourhood is populated with eccentric characters, children play on the stoops and the street, everyone knows what is going on with everyone else and more often than not look out for each other, but it is tough, and there is always a threat of violence, although having said that, it's more likely to be a light punch rather than a gunshot.  The film is visually inventive.  Troy goes to stay with relatives in the South, which she finds very disturbing and disorientating, and these scenes are filmed in widescreen without anamorphically adjusting the image, which gives it a strange elongated look.  The performances are great, Alfre Woodward, Delroy Lindo and Zelda Harris are all superb, and the Carmichael family do feel like a real family, and your left wondering what happens to them after the film.  Spike Lee has a part as the neighbourhood glue sniffer Snuffy.  It's a loose film, without a strong plot, and feels quite baggy and episodic.  It's warm, funny, gritty and real, with a fantastic soundtrack of early '70s soul music.

 Zelda Harris and Delroy Lindo in Crooklyn

From Up on Poppy Hill

Year of Release:  2011
Director:  Goro Miyazaki
Screenplay: Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, based on the manga From Up on Coquelicot Hill by Tetsuro Sayama and Chizuru Takahashi
Starring:  Masami Nagasawa, Junichi Okada, Keiko Takeshita, Yuriko Ishida, Jun Fubiki, Takashi Naiko, Shunsuke Kazama, Nao Omori, Teruyuki Kagawa
Running Time: 91 minutes
Genre:  animation, comics, drama, coming of age, romance

This animated film from Japan's legendary Studio Ghibli, is set in Yokohama, in 1963.  Sixteen year old Umi Matsuzaki (Nagasawa) balances schoolwork with helping to run the boarding house where she lives with her younger sisters and her grandmother.  At school, she meets Shun Kazama (Okada) who writes for the school newspaper and is heavily involved in a student campaign to save a large ramshackle building which houses the school's various clubs, from demolition.  While at first she dislikes Shun, Umi becomes drawn into the campaign to save the building, and she and Shun draw increasingly close.

This is a gentle, nostalgic, romantic, coming-of-age drama.  In contrast to better known Studio Ghibli films, such as My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) and Spirited Away (2001) this features no supernatural or fantasy elements whatsoever.  Co-scripted by acclaimed writer/director Hayao Miyazaki, from a 1980s manga, it was directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro, whose previous directorial credit was Tales From Earthsea (2006).  This is not one of the best Studio Ghibli films, but it is still a more than respectable addition to their hallowed filmography.  It's a gentle, sweet film, devoid of conflict, depicting a kinder world in lush vibrant colours, however it doesn't ignore some of the darker aspects of 1950s and 60s Japan.  While some of the animation isn't as polished as some of the other Ghibli films, and towards the end there is maybe one plot contrivance too many, this is still a great film for children and adults.

"There's no future for people who worship the future, and forget the past." - Shun Kazama (Junichi Okada)

     
From Up on Poppy Hill
      

Youth in Revolt

Year: 2009
Director: Miguel Artega
Screenplay: Gustin Nash, based on the novel Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp by C.D. Payne
Starring: Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Jean Smart, Mary Kay Place, Zack Galifianakis, Justin Long, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi, Adhir Kalyan
Running Time: 89 minutes
Genre: Comedy, coming-of-age

Summary: Oakland, California: Nick Twisp (Cera) is a likeable, intelligent, geeky teenager who enjoys arthouse movies and has no luck with girls. He lives with his divorced mother, Estelle (Smart), and her deadbeat boyfriend, Jerry (Galifianakis). When the family are forced to move to a trailer park in a small town to escape some sailors who Jerry owes money to, Nick meets and falls madly in love with Sheeni Saunders (Doubleday), anh intelligent and unconventional teenager who loves all things French and is convinced that she will one day marry a glamorous French man named Francois. However, to be with Sheeni, Nick has to contend with her strongly religious parents (Place and M. Emmett Walsh), Sheeni's seemingly perfect boyfriend, Trent (Jonathan Bradford Wright), and the fact that Nick's mother wants to take him back to Oakland.
Sheeni promises to set up a job nearby for Nick's father, George (Buscemi), if Nick can get kicked out of his mother's house so he can live with his father near Sheeni. The problem is that Nick has spent his entire life being good and well-behaved and he doesn't know how to bad and reckless and so he creates an alternate persona for himself called Francois Dillinger (Cera again) who has a mustache, smokes and has an almost sociopathic personality. However, Nick finds it increasingly difficult to control Francois, and the course of True Love never runs smoothly.

Opinions: This movie is very much a quirky, semi-indie teen comedy, starring the undisputed king of quirky, semi-indie teen comedies, Michael Cera. Here he is once again cast as a quiet likeable nerd, the kind of role that he always plays well, but here there is an added bonus as he also plays the self-centered, charismatic, calm, but menacing Francois. The rest of the cast do well especially Portia Doubleday in her first major role as Sheeni, whom she makes pretentious, enigmatic and engaging. However, aside from Cera and Doubleday, none of the rest of the cast really have much time to make much of an impression, coming on and off stage like a series of extended cameos. By the way, Rooney Mara, who is soon to appear in the title role in David Fincher's film of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has a brief appearance as Sheeni's schoolfriend.
The movie is very stylised, including a couple of animation sequences, and initially I found the relentless quirkiness quite annoying, but after awhile I got used to the style and the movie won me over. It's no classic, but it is entertaining and amusing, with enough surprises and sharp gags to keep the interest.



Michael Cera and Portia Doubleday discuss Youth in Revolt

Local

Written by: Brian Wood, illustrated by Ryan Kelly
Year of Publication: 2008
Number of Pages: 376 pages
Genre: Graphic novel, coming of age, drama,

Summary: Megan McKeenan is a young woman who drifts from place to place across North America, searching for herself and for a place in the world. The book consists of twelve inter-connected stories each set in a different location in North America with Megan as the linking character. The stories are slice of life vignettes concerning themes of home, belonging, family, memory, friendship and loneliness.

Opinion: Local was originally published as a twelve part limited series comic book between 2005 and 2008. Originally it was intended to be a series of one off stories each taking place in a different North American location and each linked by the recurring character of Megan who would appear in each story, sometimes as the lead character and sometimes as a background character. As the series progressed though, it began to focus increasingly on Megan's story. The book is powerful and emotional, sometimes funny, often shocking and frequently heartbreaking. It's intelligently written, with Megan coming across as a genuinely believable and engaging character, even when she is not particularly likeable. As is only fitting, given the concept of the book, it has a very strong sense of place, with each location becoming almost another character in the story. The detailed artwork complements the stories perfectly. Even if you don't like comics, this is strongly recommended.

The locations featured in Local are:
Portland, Oregon
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Richmond, Virginia
Missoula, Montana
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Brooklyn, New York
Tempe, Arizona
Wicker Park, Chicago
Norman, Oklahoma
Austin, Texas
Toronto, Ontario
Vermont