Review: The Astronaut Farmer

This is a movie that everyone's inner libertarian will enjoy. It is too bad for me that I stole my inner libertarian's gun and shot him years ago so that I could join the human race. But I'm going to have a very fun time reviewing this movie.

This movie has the perfect metaphor for a dream, a big rocket ship built in a barn. Well it is a perfect metaphor for the dream that the title character, Charles Farmer, has or the way that Hollywood writers or NBA stars think of reaching for dreams. Unlike an experimental fighter jets rockets cannot have ejection seats, just wouldn't work. Once lit the dream, er, rocket either goes up just fine or something goes wrong and anyone on board or possibly even nearby dies in the tragic accident. And that's exactly the sort of way that Charles Farmer goes for his dream through this whole movie.

It makes sense that Hollywood writers would think this was a good movie. After all they are living the dream. Each one of them is one of the few who made it into the lofty orbit of the movie system while so many of their comrades failed in their attempt to reach the heavens. So naturally they don't think about, "Well what would have happened if I didn't make it?" If Farmer was just a crazy single building a rocket out on his ranch and going bankrupt as a result of his overspending I probably would not react quite as negatively to this movie, but he has a family. And he has put everything at risk for the his dream, offered up all of their lives on the altar of the sacred dreamer, not just his own.

This movie is the epitome of the selfish, irresponsible idiot who believes in platitudes like, "It is important to reach for your dreams." A sane person who was unhappy with his life would not simultaneously try to keep the life he hates and putting it in hock for a joy ride. But he wants his joy ride in space more than anything and he doesn't even try to excuse it, as NASA does, by saying that he's doing science.

Through out the movie he says he never wanted to be a rancher, that was his father's dream. So why the hell is he doing this? Why not sell the ranch and take the money to start a new life working with Burt Rutan? For that matter this movie seems about three years too late. There already has been private space flight, a fact that the movie just ignores in favor of the tired old plot line of the big bad evil government standing in the way of private citizens. And there are a lot of other tired plot devices that are picked up and toyed with for a few minutes before being dropped without being resolved. The overprotective social worker after the children of the big dreamer she doesn't understand. The menacing government agents using whatever law they can to stop the hero. And, of course, the stupid hyperactive 'news' media.

Now for some physics criticisms and ( Spoilers )

In short I found this movie to be a big ol' pile of steaming clichés and characters I hated. I recommend this movie to no one.

In Memory of Ian Richardson

The first time I really sat up and took notice of him and his fantastic acting was when he played a delightfully machiavellian prime minister in House of Cards. Since then I noticed him again and again giving great performances with one of the best voices in the acting ranks. Ian Richardson played roles in many genre films such as Jonathan Pryce's boss, Mr. Warren, in Brazil, Simon de Canterville in The Canterville Ghost, one of the main antagonists in Dark City, Lord Sepulchrave Groan in Gormenghast, and the voice of Death and the narrator in the recent Hogfather.

And he was excellent in so many other movies and shows besides that; "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "Murder Rooms", The Sign of Four, and the sequels to House of Cards to name a few. I'm sad that he's gone. Ian Richardson 1934-2007.

Fantasy and Fashion in the News

Quoth Fashionista in trendspotting article entitled Brave New Girl, "I doubt Narciso had a Peter Jackson moment while designing his Fall line, but his forcefully graceful collection evokes a warrior princess on the throne. Vera Wang's wondrous strange clothes are weird, challenging, and maybe a Marc '05 rip off, but there's no denying that her girls made a turbulent kind of magic. And what about the Mulleavy sisters metallic and misty poofs for Rodarte?

"Whatever. If they didn't spend their entire adolesence hiding in cafeteria corners reading Sci Fi novels, then I can't quote Clueless (and I can - the entire thing)."

Interesting. And I see a bit of it in the fall lines cited. Beware my SCA and costuming friends, you might become fashionable without intending it.