Movie Crush Monday: CT & Sunshine
Why hello there, friends!
It's approximately a thousand degrees in LA this week, which makes my body feel like suddenly it's summertime. It's not, of course, it's barely even spring. But LA will not be discouraged by the actual winter happening in the rest of the world. No, it will push on, blazing heat down on us and making me crave all things summertime: popsicles, some rowdy Country music, and a great action/sci-fi movie.
So of course all I've been thinking about this week is Danny Boyle's Sunshine, from 2007.
Fun Fact: Little C hates space movies. They make her hyperventilate. As I learned unfortunately one night when I popped this movie in and she proceeded to have a full-blown panic attack about them running out of oxygen. Whoops.
In my mind, Sunshine is a darn-near perfect science fiction movie. I know that there's been a ton of criticism of the film, but I personally think that it's just a fantastic movie about science and scientists. The science may or may not be entirely sound (I sat dazed in my college astronomy classes, while information whizzed over my head so I can't say for sure), but the film sets down a specific set of rules and follows them through. Other people complain about the third act, saying that it changed the whole tone of the movie. Which, in fairness, it did. But in a wildly fun way, if you're willing to hang on for the ride.
So now that the haters have been swiftly dealt-with, let's talk about a few things that this film does SO well. First up is the visuals. For any movie set in space, the design of the ship, of the space-suits, of the environments themselves, is going to be key. Some space movies go for sleek, futuristic, and clean. Others, like Apollo 13 or Gravity, are set in the real world and have gritty, tangible, real-looking settings.
Sunshine manages to walk a very fine line between the two. The ship design is futuristic and structurally beautiful, but all the surfaces inside the Icarus II look like human beings actually live there.
The other truly beautiful thing about this movie is the character work. Holy. Cow. These characters. Beyond their role in the mission, you're told almost nothing about any of these characters. You don't know where they come from, or what their families are like, or what they were doing with their lives before the Icarus Mission happened. Except, somehow you know exactly who each of them are at their core and what they want.
I've read that each actor was given a complete character biography and even though none of that information made it into the film outright, it definitely influenced all of their performances. While that is a genius idea, it's really the connection between the background information, the incredible actors, and the directors that comes together to create moments where you feel something beyond the characters on the page. In particular, there's a tense moment between Cassie (Rose Byrne) and Mace (Chris Evans) late in the film that has always stuck with me.
The whole reason that I love science fiction is the creation of world that may look like our own, but where ideas or concepts can play out in a very different way. The more fully realized the fiction world is, the more those concepts can impact an audience. I saw Sunshine when it was originally in theaters, and I still have days when it's all I can think about. And for me, that's the mark of a sci-fi movie done well.
(PS, Sunshine was written by Alex Garland, whose new move Ex Machina comes out in April. It also looks like an incredible piece of science fiction writing and stars pretty much everyone I've ever loved. I'll definitely be seeing it, and maybe do a little review here?)
Hope you're all kicking off your week strong!
CT
It's approximately a thousand degrees in LA this week, which makes my body feel like suddenly it's summertime. It's not, of course, it's barely even spring. But LA will not be discouraged by the actual winter happening in the rest of the world. No, it will push on, blazing heat down on us and making me crave all things summertime: popsicles, some rowdy Country music, and a great action/sci-fi movie.
So of course all I've been thinking about this week is Danny Boyle's Sunshine, from 2007.
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| Get it? Cause LA is like living on the surface of the sun? |
In my mind, Sunshine is a darn-near perfect science fiction movie. I know that there's been a ton of criticism of the film, but I personally think that it's just a fantastic movie about science and scientists. The science may or may not be entirely sound (I sat dazed in my college astronomy classes, while information whizzed over my head so I can't say for sure), but the film sets down a specific set of rules and follows them through. Other people complain about the third act, saying that it changed the whole tone of the movie. Which, in fairness, it did. But in a wildly fun way, if you're willing to hang on for the ride.
So now that the haters have been swiftly dealt-with, let's talk about a few things that this film does SO well. First up is the visuals. For any movie set in space, the design of the ship, of the space-suits, of the environments themselves, is going to be key. Some space movies go for sleek, futuristic, and clean. Others, like Apollo 13 or Gravity, are set in the real world and have gritty, tangible, real-looking settings.
Sunshine manages to walk a very fine line between the two. The ship design is futuristic and structurally beautiful, but all the surfaces inside the Icarus II look like human beings actually live there.
The other truly beautiful thing about this movie is the character work. Holy. Cow. These characters. Beyond their role in the mission, you're told almost nothing about any of these characters. You don't know where they come from, or what their families are like, or what they were doing with their lives before the Icarus Mission happened. Except, somehow you know exactly who each of them are at their core and what they want.
I've read that each actor was given a complete character biography and even though none of that information made it into the film outright, it definitely influenced all of their performances. While that is a genius idea, it's really the connection between the background information, the incredible actors, and the directors that comes together to create moments where you feel something beyond the characters on the page. In particular, there's a tense moment between Cassie (Rose Byrne) and Mace (Chris Evans) late in the film that has always stuck with me.
The whole reason that I love science fiction is the creation of world that may look like our own, but where ideas or concepts can play out in a very different way. The more fully realized the fiction world is, the more those concepts can impact an audience. I saw Sunshine when it was originally in theaters, and I still have days when it's all I can think about. And for me, that's the mark of a sci-fi movie done well.
(PS, Sunshine was written by Alex Garland, whose new move Ex Machina comes out in April. It also looks like an incredible piece of science fiction writing and stars pretty much everyone I've ever loved. I'll definitely be seeing it, and maybe do a little review here?)
Hope you're all kicking off your week strong!
CT
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