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The Midnight Sky

The sky's the limit with this ambitious Clooney sci-fi melodrama.

The Midnight Sky

It’s no stretch to think that in 2049 an apocalypse has devastated earth. In an enjoyable The Midnight Sky, alone in the Arctic, astronomer Augustine (George Clooney) tries to contact a returning expedition to a habitable exoplanet to warn it not to return. In addition, he has to find someone to care for little stowaway Iris (Caolinn Springall) because he is about ready to die from a disease and there is no place like home anymore.

Director George Clooney knows his way around a camera now with impressive set pieces like a blizzard and space ship repair, his way around the story not so much. The sentimental motifs are there including loves left behind, orphaned children, and flashbacks to simpler times.

Clooney as actor is commendable: he underplays a scientist who sees the end coming near and accepts his terminal fate. He quietly warms to his little ward enough to try to save her, although, because she has maybe 2 lines, it’s tough for the audience to identify with her.

Clooney takes another minimalist approach about our destruction of the planet with a few damning lines about what a poor job we’ve done taking care of it. Hysterics about the lost world are few if any—the population readily abandons Earth for a newer world.

The film fumbles a plot point or two when we become slightly confused about the lineage of two players. Having little Iris absent for the last part in order to emphasize other relationships is a loss, albeit this reviewer is an admirer of the minimalist approach to storytelling.

Clooney and company channel the spirit of recent Sci-Fi’s like Ad Astra, Gravity, The Martian, and Interstellar. Like them, most super hero films, and old E.T., going home is paramount. In the case of The Midnight Sky, it’s a tough haul given our penchant for destroying that home.

Let’s just call it, like It’s a Wonderful Life, a cautionary tale at holiday time.

John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com

The Midnight Sky

Director: George Clooney (Good Night, Good Luck),

Screenplay: Lily Brooks-Dalton, based on the book 'Good Morning, Midnight' by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant)

Cast: George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)

Run Time: 2h 2m

Rating: PG-13

John DeSando holds a BA from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in English from The University of Arizona. He served several universities as a professor, dean, and academic vice president. He has been producing and broadcasting as a film critic on It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics for more than two decades. DeSando received the Los Angeles Press Club's first-place honors for national entertainment journalism.