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Apollo 10½ Movie Review

Apollo 10½ is a 2022 animated coming-of-age film directed by Richard Linklater. It is one of the most nostalgic movies that I have ever seen.

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“We accidentally built the lunar module a little too small.

But we’re not gonna let that set us back“

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A man narrates stories of his life as a 10-year-old boy in 1969 Houston, weaving tales of nostalgia with a fantastical account of a journey to the moon. This is the most personal project so far from Linklater and that intimacy and high emotions are evident throughout the film’s runtime. Obviously, the story mixes fantastical elements with the real life storyline through the addition of a child going to the Moon instead of an adult.

I loved those sequences as these sections justified the movie being animated instead of done in live-action. I would personally have gone with a stranger, more artistic third act to push the medium even more, but the ending that we got was still beautiful and very strong. Obviously, this movie isn’t for everybody as it is extremely nostalgic and personal. It almost classifies as a documentary in that regard.

But I loved that about it. There are two distinct parts to this movie. One is the autobiographical story of growing up in 1969 Houston while the other is the space race storyline. I obsess over astronomy and space research, so obviously this story appealed to me. The movie is very inspirational in its depiction of the Moon landing and just how important it was for humanity.

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But what this film does differently from every other movie dealing with this subject is making the point about how incredibly scientific and advanced this era was in comparison to the past and the future. Getting to see the obsession with everything astronomical and technological and realizing just how depressing the current era is in comparison to the late sixties was heartbreaking to me. We have put humans on the Moon in 1969 and the future looked bright. Now, in 2022 there are no new major scientific breakthroughs and the wars are still brewing. This ironic tone to the film was striking.

Contrary to what I’d initially expected, the regular autobiographic storyline ended up being even stronger than the space race. Now, this is a very American view on childhood that is very much set in this specific time and place. As a Serb growing up much later, a lot of the stuff that Linklater portrayed here felt odd and unfamiliar to me.

However, the movie still felt incredibly nostalgic and almost magical, which just goes to show how incredible Linklater is as a storyteller first and foremost. Following the music, movie, TV trends and various games in-between, the movie’s scope felt all-encompassing. It really felt evocative of this period and rare are movies that transport you to the intended era so effectively.

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But the reason why it is universally nostalgic lies in its depiction of childhood and just how different and precious this period is for every one of us. There is this deeply touching scene where the young boy is asleep in the car and the older narrator states that this will be the last time that he will be so carefree to suddenly go to sleep like that. The final sequence where the whole family watched the Moon landing also hinted at that passage of time and how sad it is.

Linklater has always done this theme beautifully and here he doesn’t disappoint. Apollo 10½ just gets it. The movie is so honest in its depiction of the many joys of childhood, how creative kids are and how they go from one fad to another. It also gets just how fleeting it is, but for you as a child it feels as if it is going to last forever. I’ve had a perfect childhood just like the director did and the movie hit me straight through the chest.

The animation is your standard rotoscoping technique, though I would say that it is a bit more polished and better-looking than the director’s previous animated efforts. The editing is masterful here while the narration from Jack Black is brilliant. I rarely like narration in movies, but when it is done this well, I don’t mind it. His voice perfectly captures the tender, joyous and playful nature of childhood. The voice acting is only solid, but the cast of colorful characters made this family truly wonderful. The movie just felt lived-in, which is expected given that it was a passion project for him.

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The story is very imaginative and its attention to detail is staggering as Linklater really goes in-depth reminiscing about his own experiences while also touching on some problems of the time, which contrasted so well what otherwise could have been an overly rose-colored movie.

Populated with a cast of colorful personalities and phenomenally narrated by Jack Black, Apollo 10½ is the most personal project for Linklater and that was obvious through the staggering level of detail that he put into his storytelling and a very intimate, emotional tone throughout its runtime. This is a film that depicts the Moon landing and just how authentic this era was for scientific breakthroughs, but it also portrays Linklater’s own childhood while again pinpointing how brilliant he is when dealing with the themes of the passage of time and growing up. He really gets what it feels like to be a carefree child and this is a rare movie that is extremely nostalgic, but universally so as everybody can relate to it as its themes are all-encompassing.

My Rating – 4.5