Slingshot

The genre of sci-fi is about as old as films themselves, and although we seemingly have covered every aspect of what could happen when in space, along comes "Slingshot". This takes the psychological thriller to an all new level replete with a minimal cast, and a premise where the audience has to figure out who is the good and bad guys.

A psychological thriller starring Casey Affleck and Laurence Fishburne, "Slingshot" follows an elite trio of astronauts, Captain Franks (Fishburne), John (Affleck) and Nash (Tomer Capone) aboard a years-long possibly compromised mission to Saturn's moon Titan. As the team gears up for a highly dangerous slingshot maneuver that will either catapult them to Titan or into deep space, it becomes increasingly difficult for one astronaut to maintain his grip on reality. As tension grows between the three of them, who's right and who's wrong about the project?

Others to round out the cast are Emily Beecham as Zoe, David Morrissey as Sam Napier, Charlotta Lovgren as Gale, Mark Ebulue as Gordon and Nicolett Barabas as voice of the ship. 

This tightly wound film was directed with grit and tenacity by Mikael Hafstrom ("Terrons finger" (TV movie) '89, "Vendetta" '95, "Days Like This" '01, "Evil" '03, "Drowning Ghost" '04, "Derailed" '05, "1408" '07, "Shanghai" '10, "The Rite" '11, "Escape Plan" '13, "Quick" '19, "Outside the Wire" '21, "Stockholm Bloodbath" '23) plus TV and other TV movies. By this filmmaker's resume, he certainly knows his way around an intense thriller. His actors came across incredibly believable in their respective roles that the audience is totally back and forth with who is right and who is not, or is anything really going on and they are experiencing space psychosis? His pacing and staging of the actors were well thought out as well. It was executed well by writers R. Scott Adams ("Donner Pass" '11) and Nathan C. Parker ("Moon" '09, "Blitz" '11, "Equals" '15, "2:22" '17, "Our House" '18) plus TV and a short, based on a story by R. Scott Adams. The premise of this film was riveting as it was entertaining. Assuredly Adams received top billing for this since it was his story, however with Parker obtaining the lion's share of the experience, looking at his resume will tell one that this screenplay has his name all over it. His film, "Moon" with Sam Rockwell was reminiscent of this film--Rockwell played an astronaut in a psychological drama finishing up a three year stint on the moon and his only companion being a ship computer. It was a brilliant film, and although this was a good film, it was not quite the caliber of "Moon". This film had a problem was becoming a bit disjointed and meandered in a couple of small places, but otherwise was a tight script. It does have an amazing twist that will take the audience by surprise and, at that point, the story definitely picked up. The visual effects by Automatik were designed well and definitely did not override the story. 

Certainly, if you like sci-fi, you'll be in that heaven. Typically films that have a limited cast turn out to be strong and captivating, i.e. "Moon", :Alien", and this film. This has issues, but truly not enough to not see this film. I recommend this just for the cat-and-mouse aspect of it. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                           Rated: R                                           108mins.