Fly Me To the Moon

 

“If you fake this mission, every single thing that we have sacrificed will have been for nothing.”

3.5/5

Delightful, revisionist and fun, Fly Me To the Moon is a charming screwball romantic comedy set against the chaos of the space race, that explores a clever historical what-if? scenario with plenty of attention to fake detail, and plenty of charisma to get away with it. 

Discussion Points:

Takes a super silly premise and really leans into it and makes it work. Plenty of suspension of disbelief given the heavy historical revisionism with completely fictitious characters and scenarios inserted into incredible accurate historical events, blurring the line between fantasy and reality. Scarlett Johansson is having a fantastic time, whilst Channing Tatum is more stoic than usual with less comedic opportunities. The rest of the supporting cast are memorable and fun, with a special shout out to Anna Garcia (as a big College Humour/Dropout fan it’s awesome to see someone from their ranks on the big screen). The historical recreations are so convincing that half the time you feel like it’s an actual retelling of historical events (partly because so much of it is loosely based on reality). The films effects, costumes, sets and styling all evoke that classic late 60s space race atmosphere. Was honestly really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this, but it’s not perfect. The romance is pretty thinly written and the film can’t fully decide whether it’s a screwy rom com or a space race drama, and it makes some interesting decisions when it comes to inserting its characters into real life events, complete with culpability for actual tragedies. Overall still a fun screwy space race rom com with plenty of charisma to make up for its plot flaws and thin motivations.