Slingshot

I saw Slingshot early as part of AMC's Screen Unseen. As a self-proclaimed sci-fi junkie, I approved of the selection. Knowing zero about the movie beforehand made the experience even better. Everything was set up for success.

Yet success was not achieved. And it's pretty clear why. There isn't nearly enough substance for a full length movie. Very little happens, making the viewing experience fairly boring. I watched the trailer afterwards and it's more exciting than anything in the movie.

The best part is the cast with good performances all around. And there are some interesting story elements that come into play late. But by that point I was mostly checked out.

If you feel underwhelmed like I did, try Sunshine (2007) for a significantly better experience. More exciting and a cast that dwarfs that of Slingshot.

(1 viewing, early screening AMC Screen Unseen 8/26/2024)

This has to be like the fourth or fifth movie featuring astronauts on a distant mission, but being about the psychological state of the lead character, in the last few years. This things are usually giving themselves away immediately: artificial gravity, LED light everywhere, big screens, big spaces, lectures for children about the Solar System given to trained astronauts, things unravelling or not making sense, but always, always someone obsessively thinking about people in their past: lovers, children, parents. Because it makes perfect sense for a person to go through years of rigorous training to perform a specific mission and then, when they get the job, out of a lot of hard working and highly motivated candidates, they spend it regretting things and thinking about the past. And they were the best candidate out of them all!

What's the point?! Who watched these and then said "yes, that's exactly what I needed! A psychological drama, but set in space, although nothing spacy really happens!"? Science fiction folk don't care about the drama of it, they want the action and the science and the gadgets and maybe to feel that there is more to life than just the daily whining of people. And drama people want some sort of highly emotional story involving multiple people, but somehow resembling their life, not some person in a small space having a fit. What a completely useless film!

So, yeah, let's call this small-space-fiction. And the writer is Nathan Parker, of Moon fame! He did one good film about a guy alone on a space station 15 years ago and thought to remake it, but without a story?

Bottom line: the story is so flimsy that I can't talk about it without spoiling it. All I can say is that this is not science fiction, because there is no science, and one can hardly call it fiction, because it doesn't have the coherence of fiction. It's like a nightmare that makes no sense and you barely remember when you wake up from it. The only positive thing is that it was decently acted.

The best part of this movie is the ending, which will deceive the viewer several times. Laurence Fishburne played his role, as always, perfectly. Casey Affleck did well, but I was never impressed by his performance, although this is just my personal subjective judgment. Yes, it's not easy to watch this movie to the end, and this is its main disadvantage, it was especially hard for me to watch Affleck's caramel flashbacks, but I still watched this movie - the film turned out to be quite good. Given the complexity of the plot and ambiguous characters, it is impossible not to mention the merits of the director. Visual style, musical accompaniment - all this works to create a unique closed atmosphere. The film may not become a cult classic, but it definitely deserves the attention of those who like thoughtful and ambiguous stories.

There's a moment right at the end that would have elevated this film to something really worth recommending. Some movies greatly benefit from a conclusion open to interpretation. This is one of them. It gave me the same feeling I had all those years ago watching Total Recall. But they didn't do that here. The final scene is very clear and I think that was a poor choice. Unless the focus is commentary on human behavior, in which case it makes sense. Still, the alternative would have been spectacular.

How cool is Laurence Fishburne? He's been one of my favorite actors since Event Horizon + The Matrix, and in each project following that he never misses. Role of the captain he plays is pretty much perfect. Even when the twists, turns and second-guessing begins, it still fits whatever outcome you may have in mind. That kind of presence and versatility is pure talent, and I never get tired of seeing it. Everybody else does a great job in their respective roles, but Morpheus steals the show.

They likely could have removed 15 minutes and the film would have been better for it. You can definitely feel some drag. While this doesn't outright ruin anything, I probably would have rated it higher otherwise.

Slingshot is primarily a psychological drama, which happens to be set in a Science Fiction universe. But anyone going to this movie hoping for a space actioner or some space opera will leave very disappointed.

In a twisty turny narrative that could have been shortened by 15 or 20 minutes without losing any impact, the three lead actors give outstanding performances, but there is a lot of repetition, and the middle third of the film really drags.

At the same time, it certainly keeps you thinking, and the ending is extremely gripping and tense.

This is not a film at the same level as Space Odyssey, Or Solaris. But if you have a brain and you want to be provoked into thinking about the nature of love and humanity faced by existential crises this is not a bad movie at all.