Firstly the film looks wonderful. The scenes in NASA and in space are superb. But the majority of the film for some reason is about the everyday life of a boy from a family whose members, apart from the father, are so undeveloped so we never feel anything for them or learn anything about them, and living in an utterly boring new estate in the USA. No doubt the stream of specific cultural references to everyday foods, tv programmes, games, etc., will have Americans who grew up in similar circumstances smiling and nodding their heads. But non-USA viewers may well feel excluded and that they are having to indulge the film-makers and target audience. The narrator's voice, as the child now grown up, is like the worst kind of old sot who goes on and on about the intricacies of his childhood world late at night. When he points out that the kids riding in the back of the pci-up would not be allowed today but they were then unaware of the danger of a crash or rollover we feel we are in the presence of a half-drunk bore who has to tell us every detail in case we are too stupid to understand. He hardly matches the boy's character and it is hard to see a link between them. Worst of all is the coolness of every character, apart from the mother who is not developed beyond being motherly. If this is the tale of a bored child fantasising that he is secretly an astronaut, then why spend most of the film on the boring bit? The whole long section from the point where the boy is in training to when we resume the NASA narrative seems to go on forever. What a shame - this is the opposite of Boyhood: by being particular to the point of boredom the film-makers have produced a film that is only for those who themselves like to be indulged.
Review of Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
