Welcome back to the blog readers. If there is one thing that I love in a film, it is to get a snapshot of the past, whether that is more recent history or back to the early days of humanity. Just look at Oppenheimer (2023): it won seven Academy Awards and is one of the greatest films I have ever seen. When I heard about this film, I could not help but to be intrigued. A plot to stage the moon landings, which coincidentally is one of the biggest conspiracy theories to ever be around? Sign me up. But how would the final product end up? Stick around to find out.
Fly Me to the Moon was directed by Greg Berlanti from a screenplay by Rose Gilroy and a story by Bill Kirstein and Keenan Flynn. The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Jim Rash, Ray Romano, and Woody Harrelson. In the film, a relationship develops between the NASA director in charge of the Apollo 11 launch and the marketing specialist brought in to fix NASA's image and stage a "back-up" fake Moon landing.
Learning Greg Berlanti was the man behind this film gave me both joy and pause because I am a big fan of the Arrowverse and where that ended up. I had pause because I was not sure he would be able to handle a major film with major actors and a big budget because he never directed any of the episodes in the Arrowverse. But any pause that I had was quickly thrown out, because this film is absolutely awesome. The film is witty, the film is smart, the comedy is on point, the acting is inspired, and the film is a top 5 film of the year so far for me.
I want to start by praising the performance of Scarlett Johansson as Kelly Jones. It is very well known that Johansson is very selective over the scripts she takes, and I can understand why she would have taken this one. Her performance in this film is absolutely stellar, and I believe it may be the best performance of her career thus far. In this role, she is fast and she is witty, and I love her charm in this role. And I want to especially point out her impeccable chemistry with costar Channing Tatum. The two of them together are extremely likable and work together perfectly on screen.
Speaking of the man himself, Channing Tatum has definitely improved himself as an actor over the years. I remember watching 22 Jump Street (2014) in theaters and liking him in the film, but he has been someone who has wanted to improve his craft, and that he has. I do not remember him being as magnetic and charismatic in a film as he is in this film. I actually found myself really gravitating towards him in this role, and I am completely glad that he did do this role. And like I said, his chemistry with Scarlett Johansson is nothing short of impeccable. I do hope that they work together again in the future.
The story of this film is one that had intrigued me from the very start. One of the biggest and most circulated conspiracy theories that has been around for a very long time was the fact that the Moon landings were staged and fake. Obviously, this is not true because there is no way NASA would have been given that much money and been given that many resources to put two men on the moon if they were planning to stage the whole ordeal in the first place. I think this film does a brilliant job in giving fans an analysis on how people can be so blinded by what they want to see that they will not look at what is happening. The film can be seen as a kind of cautionary tale in that regard.
To conclude my thoughts, Fly Me to the Moon is a masterful period piece that features impeccable chemistry between the two leads, comedy that works, a story that is witty and smart, and a good time overall. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you all for the next post.
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