A review by r96sk

Written by r96sk on 2025-07-02

<em>'October Sky'</em> got me in the feels. I tend to (unintentionally) be a bit of a hardnose when it comes to fiction (even if a biopic) making an impact, but it does occasionally happen and this is one of those times. Weirdly too, because it is cheesy/cliché/whatever, but it worked tremendously for me. I felt my heartstrings tug a fair number of times throughout, culminating with those lovely final few scenes; I was actually welling up, would you believe? Any longer and tears may have been shed <i>*shudder*</i>. I've basically only seen one movie this last month - what has the break done to me?! Humour aside, I did love this though. I've said it before, but to be honest if you give me what I consider to be great cast performances then I'm practically sold on the film upon that coming to fruition. Jake Gyllenhaal is terrific (this still doesn't surpass <em>'Source Code'</em>, mind) as lead. Chris Cooper is ace, as are Laura Dern and Natalie Canerday. Chris Owen (Sherminator!), Chad Lindberg (Jesse!) and William Lee Scott (eh... well, Roy Lee as of now!) are good supports to Gyllenhaal as well. Even the likes of Elya Baskin and Randy Stripling add needed small bits. The music is good too, especially towards the end; early on it kinda goes with what I said about the flick being a tad cheesy and/or cliché. I would describe the movie as that to be frank, but that is more endearing than anything else. I'm fine with those things if it works, which it pleasantly does here. Joe Johnston really went back-to-back with this and <em>'Jumanji'</em>. Impressive!