Apollo 10½: A Space Age Adventure

‘Stanley is the youngest of six siblings and grows up in a suburb of Houston in the 1960s – a world in which it seems every father works for NASA and the space race is still seen as a shining embodiment of the American Dream. A planning error with the first manned rocket (it’s too small for adults, but just the right size for Stanley) leads to his secret recruitment. Most of the film, however, revolves around the unsupervised joys of an analogue childhood: prank calls, Ouija boards and playing kickball in the street until dinnertime. The whole thing is relaxed, captivating and surprisingly charming all at once – a beautiful, gentle ode to a bygone world.” (Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly, Apr 2022)

“The Apollo mission was a monumental milestone. It seemed worthwhile to me to look at it from the perspective of a child taking out the rubbish and playing with his friends. Weaving a little story around such a monumental achievement seemed like fun to me.” (Richard Linklater on goldberry.com, Dec 2022)