Film review: Casey Affleck and Laurence Fishburne make “Slingshot” a gripping surprise
1 of 5 | Casey Affleck (left) and Laurence Fishburne star in “Slingshot.” Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 28 (UPI) — Slingshotwhich hits theaters Friday, is the kind of small-scale, big-idea movie they used to make all the time. It’s full of suspense and unpredictable twists until the credits roll.
John (Casey Affleck) is part of a three-person crew on a space mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. John, Nash (Tomer Capone) and Captain Franks (Laurence Fishburne) take turns sleeping in a deep sleep for months at a time, while the awake crew member monitors the ship.
Things go wrong outside the Jupiter checkpoint, where the ship is supposed to orbit the gas giant and make the rest of the way to Titan. Nash tries to persuade John to defy Frank’s orders and head for Earth.
The film takes place on the spaceship, except for flashbacks that show John being recruited and falling in love with Zoe (Emily Beecham), who he left behind. It’s a good way to keep the film contained, but the ideas are so big that it feels epic.
The screenplay by R. Scott Adams and Nathan Parker builds tension around the characters. Everyone has clear motives for their decisions – motives that contradict each other and are bound to come into conflict.
It reminds of the great submarine movie, Purple Floodin which a captain and a first officer repeatedly seized command due to a disagreement over their orders. Only Purple Flood had a large team on each captain’s side and Slingshot was between three people.
Slingshot also conveys the dream logic of hypersleep, a convention of science fiction, but Slingshot suggests that people sleep for months and that waking up has side effects.
Affleck and Capone convey the expertise of astronaut qualifications combined with the discomfort of adjusting to the rigidity of their bodies and minds. As the captain, Fishburne maintains his legendary authority but doesn’t reveal whether he feels those effects.
Unfortunately, Slingshot is a rarity in the film climate of 2024, especially at the end of a summer full of sequels.
In the past, the cast alone was enough to get audiences to see them in space confronted with these technical and metaphysical problems. The attraction lies in the sheer creativity and execution of a compelling idea.
Slingshot fits into the genre with The Martian And Interstellarwhich, although not in line with the budget, still correspond to the science fiction and human themes of these films.
Kudos to Bleecker Street Studio for continuing to support cinemas with a film like this. slingshot. Hopefully audiences will take the opportunity to see an original film, superbly directed by Mikael Hafstrom and played by actors who do their best.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is an entertainment writer for UPI based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a critic for Rotten Tomatoes since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more about his work in entertainment.
