Review of Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022) by Nobodyyouknow — 04 Apr 2022

Your enjoyment of this movie will probably depend largely on your age and how much you were expecting a space story. I'm several years younger than the protagonist, Stan, but I still remember enough about the time period to enjoy the references to late '60s America. And while I was expecting this to be more space-centric, I wasn't bothered by the fact that visiting the moon was merely the backdrop for a warm-hearted, nostalgic look at family and coming of age.

The absurd premise -- that NASA gets a 10-year-old to fly to the moon *without* anyone (including his parents) knowing -- is laid out early, so you can decide right away whether you wanna go along for the ride. If you go along, you'll quickly realize that the space trip isn't the point. Stan's recollections about coming of age during a magical time in American history are delivered by the narrator with a cozy familiarity that belies the absurd premise. And I found myself smiling almost the entire time.

I think the choice to animate over live-action only helped this film. The slightly surreal look supports the surreal story -- putting a perfectly normal kid in a preposterous situation but somehow making the situation feel normal. The acting feels very natural, and there's easy comedy that comes from lots of regular, real-life moments. In particular, Stan's mom's occasional, blunt outbursts made me giggle.

Apollo 10½ just made me feel good, and if you were alive during the late '60s or even early '70s, you'll probably also feel good watching it.