gravity – Smaller Pictures

The Midnight Sky (2020)

Happy new year, my fellow filmies! Now that we have left a year that has shaken the whole world up, we can now look forward to a new start where things can start to look more positive. As any film fan will know, we’ve now entered the period of awards season which means plenty of screeners, numerous streaming site subscriptions and hopefully plenty of cinema trips if and when they reopen. Embarking on the quest to watch as many films up for contention has gone off to a great start and the latest on my watch list is Netflix’s The Midnight Sky directed by and starring George Clooney. The film takes place in a dystopian future where Earth is becoming more inhabitable. Humans have been evacuated onto spaceships in order to find a new planet to settle down on. Clooney plays research scientist, Augustine, the only survivor left on Earth as he is terminally ill and needs dialysis to survive. He keeps in contact with a ship called Æther whose team has discovered a habitable moon called K-23 that orbits Jupiter.

George Clooney’s direction is hugely ambitious as this marks his biggest directorial project yet. With a huge handful of successful adaptations under his belt, The Midnight Sky is an adaptation of the 2016 novel, Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. With a screenplay written by Mark D. Smith and a massive budget of $100 million, Clooney brings together a renowned cast and crew for the film and the result is a huge spectacle that feels like an event in the same vein of other 21st century space sagas like Gravity (which also stars Clooney) and Interstellar. However, where the film excels in its special effects and grandeur, it seems to lack a little in the characterisation and we don’t quite get to know the main characters as well as I would like, especially the leads Augustine and Sully (Felicity Jones).

As mentioned previously, we have George Clooney and Felicity Jones as the film’s leads. Both play scientists in different setting and never share a scene together and yet they have a touching friendship as they compare notes. With Augustine having theorised that K-23 was habitable 30 years prior as shown through flashbacks, Sully and her team aboard the ship have actually proven his research to be correct. Clooney sets himself a huge challenge as his scenes only consist of him and a young girl called Iris (Caoilinn Springall) who can’t speak. Having to drive the scenes largely himself, it’s a huge undertaking and at times the action happening can overwhelm the emotion and make the film inaudible at times. On the other hand, Jones spends her scenes aboard the Æther which is heading to Earth to share their discovery of K-23. Working as an astronaut whilst pregnant, Sully is a resilient character. Despite being in her condition, she still puts in her fair share of hardwork like the others in the crew. Jones has shown time and time again that she is a strong leading lady, which is clearly demonstrated in The Theory of Everything and Rogue One. I think that Jones isn’t quite given the screentime and characterisation that she needs to really standout but she does a solid job with what she has.

For the supporting cast, Clooney fills the casting list with more familiar faces. My personal favourites in support were Kyle Chandler and Demián Bichir as astronauts Mitchell and Sanchez. Not only are Chandler and Birchir hugely likeable presences in any films, but it’s nice to see them in roles where they are able to provide a lot of subtle comic relief. Leading a team recital of “Sweet Caroline” from the control panel as everyone else is repairing the outside of the ship, it’s clear that Chandler and Birchir are having a blast in their roles. As they are only in support, they aren’t in the film that long and honestly, I think the film would have benefitted from incorporating them more into Sully’s storyline and showing their friendship to establish the family vibe that Clooney was aiming for. This would give the events that unfold a lot more impact.

The strongest aspect in this film for me is the beautiful score composed by the legendary Alexandre Desplat. Keeping the music subtle and more classical, Desplat’s score contrasts the sci-fi genre of the film and gears it towards the dramatic side, providing a heavier backdrop to the overall film. When watching the film, my ears kept picking up the music and it would grab my attention more than the story was and I instantly knew that it had to be a Deaplat score. As a huge fan of Desplat’s score, it’s clear that he is one of the best film composers working today and proves his amazing talent for working on any kind of film.

Overall, The Midnight Sky is a film that bites off more than it can chew. Individually, each aspect from the acting to the special effects to the scores work but when you mix it all together, it becomes a bit overwhelming without actually pushing a developed narrative. It’s great to see Clooney in front of the camera for a film since 2016’s Money Monster. I do wonder if the film would have benefitted more from a cinematic release. Granted cinemas are closed but this was always destined to release on Netflix. A lot of space dramas tend to have a stronger and positive response from a big screen viewing. That being said, it is a film I will probably revisit to see if I grow to like it more as there were some fantastic scenes throughout.

What did you think of The Midnight Sky? Let me know in the comments below!

The Midnight Sky is available to watch now on Netflix.

Steve McQueen: Film Ranking

One of the most revolutionary film directors to emerge this century so far is Steve McQueen. A Turner Prize winning artist who has turned his attention to feature films, McQueen’s realistic and fearless approach to exploring serious topics such as domestic abuse and slavery as well as taboo subjects such as sex addiction. When it comes to mcQueen, nothing is off limits and he isn’t afraid to expose the realities of the film’s subjects. He is also the first black filmmaker to win the Acaemy Award for Best Picture for 12 Years a Slave. I also think he should have been rewarded the Best Director Oscar as well although Alfonso Cuarón did a great job with Gravity.

Given the current landscape, I think it is now more important than ever to highlight the talent and calibre that people of colour bring to the film industry. The film industry is so important when it comes to representation and sadly, it just isn’t where it should be. Film is a fantastic medium to express personal stories, provide escapism and bring relevant topics and subjects to the forefront as point of discussion. I thought it best to take a look into McQueen’s amazing filmography and do a ranking of his films. There are only four films but each one is a standout in their own right so as usual, it will prove to be a challenge.

Here are my mini reviews for each McQueen film follows by the ranking:

Hunger (2008)
McQueen’s feature debut stars Michael Fassbender as IRA protestor, Bobby Sands, who takes part in a hunger and no-wash strike. This is a fantastic debut for McQueen and deservedly won him a BAFTA for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer for their First Feature Film. We watch as Sands figuratively and literally begins to fade away as he becomes the symbol for the strike. McQueen doesn’t hide the dirtiness and the discomfort in watching Sands lose the majority of his weight to the point where he can’t function. Technically, the film appears simple but it is comprised of many brilliant shots, one in particular being a 17 minute non-stop conversation between Sands and Father Moran (Liam Cunningham). By bringing a minimalist and realistic angle to the film, it actually exemplifies the horrors of the strike. Hunger put both McQueen and Fassbender on the map and it made way for the former’s unapologetic point of view approach to filmmaking.

Shame (2011)
For his second feature, McQueen reunites with Fassbender who plays Brandon Sulliven, a business executive who has an addiction to sex. Much like Hunger, McQueen does not flinch away from the realities that sex addiction has. There is nudity, both male and female, in abundance as well as underlying issues of family conflict and self-harm. This is not a film to be watched lightly as it is even more uncomfortable than its predecessor but it talks about a topic that people consider taboo. It also explores classism and the idea of the untouchable rich white male. During his usual work day, Brandon religiously watched pornography on his computer and when this is discovered, it is automatically assumed that his intern is the one who has been downloading and watching it. The idea that someone like Brandon couldn’t be associated with sex addiction is an idea that McQueen rejects in Shame. Brandon surrounds himself with sex to avoid the fact that he is lonely and unfulfilled.

12 Years a Slave (2013)
The film that propelled McQueen to the major awards circuit, 12 Years a Slave is possibly the most explicit and “real” feature film about slavery in mainstream cinema. Based on the memoir of the name same by Solomon Northup, a New-york born black man who was kidnapped and sold as a slave in Louisiana. Northup is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor with Lupita Nyongo’o as fellow slave Patsey and Fassbender in his third McQueen film as slave owner Edwin Epps. It’s a star-studded cast but what McQueen does so well is focus so much on the characters and their development that the audience forgets which actors they are watching and it becomes almost documentary like. McQueen does not hold back on the brutality that the slaves face and it goes beyond daily beatings as we see Epps rape Patsey and Epps’ wife feel resentment for Patsey rather than her husband. It’s a film that demands conversation and McQueen refuses to allow the film to be whitewashed or edited to appeal to white audiences in the way that films such as Song of the South does.

Widows (2018)
The latest feature film released by McQueen is an amazing tour de force starring Viola Davis as Veronica, a woman recently widowed after her bank robber husband, Harry (Liam Neeson) and his cohorts are killed when their car blows up. Veronica along with the other widows of the men who died must work together to get some money that is owed to a crime boss. The team comprises of Veronica, Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) and it’s so empowering watching such a huge film led by women and more importantly such a diverse cast of women. Anyone who claims that women cannot lead a film because it doesn’t bring in money is mistaken as the film was a critical and commercial success. What makes the film so engaging is how well-rounded each of the women are. We get a grip of their backgrounds in a few scenes and yet the audience understands their story and motivations to get the money. Even when Belle, who wasn’t one of the original widows is brought into the plot, is introduced, her backstory as both a beautician and babysitter is made clear highlighting her struggling financial position.

Although it is not the longest filmography, McQueen has proven why he is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today. I have included discussions of each of the films above when talking about Michael Fassbender and Viola Davis’ best roles which you can read here and here, respectively. I think that only demonstrates McQueen’s talent as director that he is able to create career-best films for his stars. His ability to create characters that are well-rounded is flawless and he has only demonstrated improvement as we go from a single standout performance in Hunger to four equally developed characters in Widows where he allows women to take the lead.

Here is my ranking of McQueen’s film:

1) 12 Years a Slave (2013)

2) Widows (2018)

3) Hunger (2008)

4) Shame (2011)

Do you agree with my ranking? Which McQueen film is your favourite? Let me know in the comments below!