Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
October Sky (1999)
Director: Joe Johnston
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
This adaptation of Homer H Hickam's best selling memoir Rocket Boys is set in a working class corner of the Appalachians, where life for the young folk follows a depressingly familiar pattern: after high school, down the mine. Young Homer (Gyllenhaal) however, gazes up at Sputnik in the night sky and is inspired to join the '50s space race by experimenting with his own homemade rockets. Encouraged by a teacher (Dern), Homer and his pals look to the state and national school science fairs, where college scholarships are up for grabs, thinking the unthinkable for mining town lads. Still, Hickam senior (Cooper, never better), pit foreman, disapproves of such foolishness. Even if Homer were to build a successful rocket, would it create a permanent rift between him and his dad? Director Johnston plays this archetypal tale of small town endeavour straight and simple. Such plainspeaking sincerity might be mistaken for mere slush, but the TV movie subject matter is infused with genuine feeling for the value of learning as a passport to freedom, and an authentic regard for the honest graft of working men.Author: TJ
Cast & crew
Director: Joe Johnston
Producer: Charles Gordon, Larry Franco
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, William Lee Scott, Chris Owen, Chad Lindberg, Natalie Canerday, Elya Baskin, Chris Ellis, Laura Dern, Scott Miles, Randy Stripling full cast
Duration: 107 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now