While George Clooney is a prodigious actor with a talent for drama and acting the fool in absurd comedies, he hasn’t had a consistent run at directing.
He smashed it out of the park with his first two directing jobs – Confessions of a Dangerous Mindand Good Night, Good Luck – but then his past four films behind the camera have ranged from mediocre (The Ides of March) to unwatchable (Suburbicon).
The Midnight Sky Cast
So, it’s great to see Clooney make a comeback with The Midnight Sky, a tight, thoughtful and effective sci-fi drama that makes excellent use of its talented cast.
Not a single performance has been discarded and while you may at first wonder why some of the most respected actors are thrown into seemingly supportive roles, it becomes very clear in the end why the specifics of their level were chosen.
There are many important moments, and very few, that do not go beyond the emotional scale even if it would be too much effort to do so. That’s a great marriage between director and actor (in Clooney’s case, he’s both), and the creative feelings involved to bring it out.
Starring Clooney, Felicity Jones, Kyle Chandler, Demian Bichir, David Oyelowo and Tiffany Boone, the film was filmed on Good Morning by Lily Brooks-Dalton, midnight.
Plot
Set 30 years into our future, a catastrophic event on Earth has had a devastating effect on life. Augustine (Clooney) is a scientist stationed at a remote Artic Center. When everyone is evacuated, Augustine stays behind – dying of an illness.
Faced with an apocalyptic apocalypse (we have never been told exactly what it is, unless it is caused by humans), Augustine is trying to contact the only local operating system, Aether, in the hope of warning them around. There is nothing left in this burnt-out Earth.
Since the base satellite does not have enough power to reach Aether, Augustine, and a young girl (Caoilinn Springall) who appears to have been left behind in the transit, they have decided to leave the security of the base and move to another, with space communications technology.
Instructed by Adewole (Oyelowo), the Aether staff team consists of communications officer Sully (Jones), pilot Mitchell (Chandler), Sanchez (Bichir) and Maya (Boone). They were on a campaign to find Jupiter’s moon, X-23.
On the way home during their two-year career, hard-working employees do not know where they are returning – or not returning as they always have.
These two middle stories are stories of challenges, dealing with violent storms or torrential rains.
But there is no difficulty or defeat where the heart of The Midnight Sky is beating – and Clooney was in Gravity so it’s not that you need to make a film about all the things that can be ruined in space.
Opinion
It is a carefully balanced movie that spends as much time on social interaction, loss, remorse and hope as it does in what we reveal about ourselves when survival is at stake.
For a story whose plot is driven by jeopardy and suspense, it’s in the character work that The Midnight Sky really hits home.
Visually, it looks great – and the palette is surprisingly warm and not desaturated considering the cold environments of the tundra and the spaceship.
Jim Bissell’s production design is particularly impressive and well thought-out. The Aether looks like it could be a space vessel designed 30 years into our future and its membrane-like interior is reminiscent of something more organic like the structure of DNA – even in this story about the end, it evokes life.
The Midnight Sky is a confident drama that reminds us why we were all so excited when Clooney first turned his hand to directing. It has a spark that’s been missing for too long.
Rating: 3.5/5
The Midnight Sky is available to stream on Netflix from Wednesday, December 23 from 7pm AEDT, and is also playing in select cinemas
