‘Apollo 10 ½’ and ‘After Yang’ use memory to explore grander themes

Much of the lasting emotional resonance in Richard Linklater’s work can be traced to how he captures defining moments of growth. Films like “Boyhood,” “Dazed and Confused,” his “Before” trilogy and even something as “light” as “School of Rock” focus on the feeling of those monumental life moments, from encountering a first great love to thrilling an auditorium full of people with the power of rock.

Linklater’s latest, “Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood,” combines the simple details of a child growing up in Houston in the 1960s with a fantasy about that same kid becoming the true first person to walk on the moon (turns out, NASA first accidentally built a too-small lunar module for Neil and Buzz, and the government can’t let such expensive equipment go to waste).

Through “Apollo 10 ½,” Linklater posits that space fantasies and mundane moments of a suburban 60s-era childhood can blend together into a wistful, rose-colored memory. The animated film follows 10-year-old Stanley, the youngest of six siblings, growing up around Houston, with the most contentious moments focused on selecting which of the three television stations to watch every night.

Jack Black narrates the film as an adult Stanley, and his near constant voice stops only occasionally for traditional, dialogue-driven scenes, and even those don’t linger for long. The movie plays out how someone might recall their own childhood greatest hits (you gotta love the extensive run of favorite TV shows Stanley lists off for several seconds in one scene).

Linklater deploys a number of animation techniques, including rotoscope, and the look of “Apollo 10 ½” often resembles that of his previous rotoscope efforts, “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly.” The animation allows Linklater to seamlessly blend the fantasy and autobiographical elements of the story, the purpose of which becomes clear in the film’s final stretch, where television coverage of the Apollo 11 mission intersects with Stanley’s experience on 10 ½.

While “Apollo 10 ½” captures a specific time and place, the juxtaposition of Stanley’s memories and fantasies will likely resonate with those who might look back at childhood as something that’s now gone and missing in adulthood. Linklater is also smart to trickle in a few details of life happening outside from his mostly privileged bubble, a narrative choice that fuels the melancholy that comes when adults grow to understand the disconnect between, say, kids growing up in a suburb and the horrors of the Vietnam War.

“Apollo 10 ½” A Space Age Childhood” is streaming on Netflix.

After Yang

Last month, Colin Farrell chewed scenery under pounds of makeup as the villainous Penguin in “The Batman.” That superhero blockbuster happened to debut on the same day as A24’s somber, Farrell-led science-fiction drama, “After Yang,” from “Columbus” writer/director Kogonada.

In a much more subdued-but-equally impactful performance, Farrell stars as a father trying to fix his young daughter’s beloved robotic older brother. He discovers the human-looking robot, Yang (played by Justin H. Min), had a much longer and more complicated history beyond his time with the family, and the only possible chance of his resurrection lies in Yang’s brief, daily recordings of self-chosen “memories.”

“After Yang” builds a fascinating vision of the future on the sidelines of this largely domestic drama, and Kogonada uses beautiful imagery to investigate the knotted relationships between Ferrell’s father, Yang, his daughter (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) and wife (“Queen & Slim” breakout Jodi Turner-Smith). It’s a quiet-but-deeply felt story which thoughtfully examines grief through the prism of memory and the images we choose to cement in our consciousness.

Though totally different in tone and scope, “After Yang” makes for a fascinating chaser to “Apollo 10 ½,” and it showcases the immense talent of Kogonada as a storyteller to watch.

“After Yang” is in select theaters and streaming on Showtime.

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Tyler Wilson is a member of the International Press Academy and has been writing about movies for Inland Northwest publications since 2000, including a regular column in The Press since 2006. He can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.”