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a14 people & arts
Thursday 31 March 2022
Linklater charmingly chronicles life in 1969 Houston

By LINDSEY BAHR ready.
AP Film Writer And for Stan this is mani-
The geniuses at NASA ac- fested in a strange real-
cidentally build the lunar ity where the space race
module a little too small for seemed to permeate the
an adult in "Apollo 10½: A most mundane aspects
Space Age Childhood." In of daily life, from the wire
Richard Linklater's first for- rockets on their play-
ay into animation since "A grounds and the despera-
Scanner Darkly," a few fast- tion to give everything —
talking NASA men (Glen even advertisements in the
Powell and Zachary Levi) newspaper — a connec-
recruit an average local tion to the astronauts.
elementary school student, There may be a little bit of
Stan, to test it out for them projection going on in re-
on a top secret mission gards to Stan's immediate
to the Moon. It's the kind appreciation of "2001: A
of thing kids have been Space Odyssey." He's ei-
dreaming about for over 50 ther the coolest 10-year-
years. old film scholar out there
Memory is a funny thing, of or this is also a riff on our
course, and no one fanta- fallible memories. Who's
sizes as freely as a kid. For to say Stan (and Linklater)
this imaginative spirit living didn't really get the famous
in the Houston area in the white room? There's also
late 1960s near NASA at the unshakable feeling that
its heyday was like "being we've seen this all before.
where science fiction was We kind of have: 1969 is
coming to life. The optimis- This image released by Netflix shows the character Stan, voiced by Milo Coy, in the animated film not exactly an undocu-
tic, technological future "Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood." mented time, especially for
was now and we were at Associated Press a middle class white family
the absolute center of ev- and this doesn't push many
erything new and better," rator telling us the story of in a neighborhood where er would use a ham for a boundaries. And yet as
he says. his childhood. His siblings it seemed like everyone weeks' worth of dinners, with most Linklater joints, it's
It should be said that our teased him for not being worked for NASA in some or memories about seeing so sincere and so sweetly
narrator Stan (Milo Coy in many family photos be- capacity, though he can't "The Sound of Music" mul- true that you can't really
voices him as a kid, Jack cause, as he says, at that help but wish that his dad tiple times a week for at fault it for not reinventing
Black as an adult) is a bit of point his family had given had a position that took least a few years straight. the wheel. Just like a story
a fabulist. Not that it mat- up on documenting every him to space, not an office. Stan explains he was part that your parents have told
ters, "Apollo 10½" is only sort move of their children. Linklater is almost too good of the last of the "duck-and- or maybe you've told a mil-
of about Stan's fantastical And it is not dissimilar to ret- at making you wistful for cover" generation, though lion times before, it's com-
trip to the Moon before Neil rospective coming-of-age times you were never part hardly the last to fear that forting. So put that ham
Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and larks like "Stand by Me," of. And even so, there is there would be no future at casserole on the stove, pull
Michael Collins took off in "Now and Then" and "The universality in Stan's life in all. up a chair and enjoy hear-
Apollo 11. It is a breezy nos- Wonder Years," with its ear- the sandwiches they would There's a paradox to living ing one more time about
talgia-fest, in rotoscope, nest, wry observations. Stan make on Sunday and un- in a time that worships the how someone who grew
about a very specific child- takes us through daily life freeze throughout the future while also predict- up with a black and white
hood in a very specific as a 10-year-old in 1969 as week for school lunches, ing the end. As if kids don't television set never knew
place with an adult nar- the youngest of six children the myriad ways his moth- have enough anxiety al- Oz was in color.q

Bruce Willis, diagnosed with aphasia, steps away from acting

NEW YORK (AP) — Bruce much to him," read the ually due to a slow-growing "The Sixth Sense," Willis has
Willis is stepping away from statement signed by Willis' brain tumor or a disease in recent years churned out
acting after a diagnosis of wife, Emma Heming Wil- that causes degenerative straight-to-video thrillers.
aphasia, a condition that lis, his ex-wife Demi Moore, damage. It is treated pri- Last year, he starred in a
causes loss of the ability and his five children, Rum- marily with speech therapy staggering eight films. Most
to understand or express er, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and learning non-verbal came and went quietly,
speech, his family an- and Evelyn. means of communication. including titles like "Cosmic
nounced Wednesday. "We are moving through The news about Willis, one Sin," "Out of Death" and
In a statement posted on this as a strong family unit, of Hollywood's most be- "Deadlock."
Willis' Instagram page, the and wanted to bring his loved actors, immediately Most recently, Willis starred
67-year-old actor's family fans in because we know spread online as fans re- in last month's "Gasoline Al-
said Willis was recently di- how much he means to acted. His four-decade ley" and "A Day to Die," re-
agnosed with aphasia and you, as you do to him," they career has amassed more leased in early March. Willis
that it is impacting his cog- said. "As Bruce always says, than $5 billion in box office has already shot at least six
nitive abilities. 'Live it up' and together we worldwide, more films due out in 2022
Actor Bruce Willis appears at "As a result of this and with plan to do just that." Willis had been working and 2023, including "Die
the premiere of "Glass" in New much consideration, Bruce Aphasia typically occurs steadily and frequently. Re- Like Lovers," "Corrective
York on Jan. 15, 2019. is stepping away from the after a stroke or head injury, nowned for films like "Die Measures" and "The Wrong
Associated Press
career that has meant so but can also develop grad- Hard," "Pulp Fiction" and Place."q