Film Review: Fly Me to the Moon

🎵 Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars... 🎵

My father has recalled to me how, just shy of five years old, he watched the first Moon landing on television. He was stunned at how he could be seeing such a momentous event live, and he would dart back and forth between the television and his window, where he could see the Moon in all its austere glory in the skies above Lawrence, Kansas. I have watched space launches on my smartphone, but I can’t imagine that even begins to approximate the feeling of seeing a Moon landing broadcast live. It is so spectacular, so literally out of this world, that a certain sort of contrarian would inevitably want to say that such a landing never happened, that the American government faked it for propaganda (in a sense, it was propaganda, as Richard Nixon wanted something to distract the world from the quasi-genocidal quagmire in Vietnam, but those astronauts landed there all the same). Those involved in such a momentous achievement understandably do not take kindly to such denials, such as when Neil Armstrong punched a denialist on camera. But that, of course, has not stopped the fiction about such possibilities, as they let us vent our anxieties about our distrust of governments and other such things. Today, we shall be discussing an odder example of such fiction: a romantic comedy about faking the Moon landing. That, ladies and gentlemen, is 2024’s Fly Me to the Moon, directed by Greg Berlanti, from a script by Rose Gilroy, from a story by Bill Kirstein and Keenan Flynn, produced by Apple Studios and These Pictures.

This film is powered by its two leads: Cole Davis, the fictional director of the expedition to the Moon, played by Channing Tatum; and Kelly Jones, the savvy marketer hired by NASA to spice up its image in the face of the volatile political issues of the 1960s, played by Scarlett Johansson. The film's promotion is clearly banking on its stars’ presence nearly as much as by its gonzo presence, and it is the characters that make the film as enjoyable as it is. Of the two, I think Johansson has the more compelling role, being given more to do. Tatum’s Davis is drawn well, realized well, but ultimately is a fairly simple character: a driven professional who wants to complete a massive project with integrity, fairness, and honesty.

It is Johansson’s Jones where the writing of the film really shines. She is assigned by NASA, under pressure from the Nixon administration, to create a fake Moon landing to be broadcast on television just to make sure everything goes smoothly. Before that, we see her in her New York office spinning up falsehoods in the name of Mammon. At the beginning, she is a person utterly without any centering morals, who makes her way through the world by telling people exactly what they want to hear. She is the sort of person who would, in today’s world, be a LinkedIn influencer, someone who bloviates on and on about leadership and mindset to the detriment of anything of substance, let alone systemic issues with the economy. It is a triumph of the writing of this film that she becomes more than odious, and indeed quite compelling. This is a character who, by all rights, I should hate with the scalding fury of a rocket engine, but I found myself completely charmed.

There is a dichotomy that powers this film, like two poles in a dynamo: the fight between truth and lies. Davis is a man committed to truth in the proudest traditions of Western science at its best. He wants to explore, discover, and wow the world fairly. On the other hand, Jones makes a living by lying, and she is as cunning and as vicious as Edward Bernays (the man who made women smokers by branding cigarettes as ‘torches of freedom’—but who refused to work for Nixon!). The entire movie is driven by the conflict between the two. The conventional romantic comedy plot is given depth by having the third-act falling out be sparked not by a trite misunderstanding or coincidence, but rather a real clash between values as the whole falsehood threatens to collapse in on itself. It is clever plotting, too, balancing genre with theme, putting the romantic comedy plot in an environment where it makes logical sense.

There’s another character, Lance Vespertine, played by Jim Rash, who I’m conflicted about. The man reminds me of Roger De Bris, the flamboyantly gay theater director played by Christopher Hewitt in Mel Brooks’s 1967 film The Producers. Vespertine is, likewise, something of a diva, a director who has hit the job of a lifetime, even if he’ll be killed if he reveals it to anyone; and is stated in the film to be gay. Rash, his actor, is gay in real life, which adds some verisimilitude, but he is reminiscent of many stereotypes of gay men in the performing arts, with his diva-like personality and his flamboyant outfits (which I must admit are quite the works of art in their own right). Rash, so far as I can tell, enjoyed playing the character, and to his credit, and the writer’s, he gets some of the best lines in the film. I am straight and so am not the most qualified to judge, but it stood out to me, especially given how little has seemed to change from a film literally from 1967 (two years earlier than the film is set!).

You also get a minor but entertaining performance from Woody Harrelson, who plays the G-man, usually dressed as a literal man in black, who is keeping tabs on the whole charade. This is a static character, only fair for someone who is clearly in a supporting role, but he is hammed up in the most delicious way possible. He adds to the film, and he also gets great lines.

The soundtrack is great, a lot of it period music. There are two different versions of Fly Me to the Moon, the tune penned by Bart Howard and made famous by Frank Sinatra (of course, Sinatra’s version is used prominently). There is also a truly inspired usage of Sam & Dave’s Hold On, I’m Coming during a climactic scene in the third act. The music immerses you in this particular time and place, just as the fashion does, and the unpleasantly but accurately portrayed social mores, none of them exploitative but all of them clear.

Fly Me to the Moon is a very strange beast, a romantic comedy that is also something of an alternate history and a film about fictional characters themselves fictionalizing a real historical event. There are layers here, especially when you realize there was never a real Cole Davis or Kitty Jones (Jones is easier to explain as an absence from the history books, but Davis would be prominent just behind the astronauts themselves). But, like the Apollo program itself, a mad dare that cobbled together a wide variety of disparate elements ended up creating something worthwhile with its own profundities. It won’t be as profound a watch as a live Moon landing, but it would be an entertaining watch in its own right.

Nerd Coefficient: 9/10.

POSTED BY: Alex Wallace, alternate history buff who reads more than is healthy.

Review: The Borgia Dove by Jo Graham

The second in a historical fantasy series centering about Giulia Farnese, mistress to Cardinal Rodrigo of the Borgia family. Yes, that Borgia family.

The first book in Jo Graham’s series, A Blackened Mirror, introduced us to the upbringing and early life of Giulia from a historical fantasy perspective. While the actual woman in history is her basis, Graham leavened her upbringing by making her a virginal (and kept deliberately so) seer, and used in magical rites amongst the scheme of factions seeking control of the Papacy in late 15th century Italy. That book ended with Giulia firmly as the concubine of the powerful and alluring Rodrigo Borgia, a man whose ambitions are to become the next Pope.

The Borgia Dove continues this story.

The year is 1492. Columbus has just started to sail the ocean blue, but has not yet reached the Americas, but he will, in a couple of months. What is also going to happen in even shorter order is Pope Innocent III is going to die. Rodrigo, now in his early 60’s, sees this as his last and best hope to become Pope. Giulia, as his mistress, wants to help him, not only because he is her lover, but the humanist side of the Church is far more appealing to her than the more traditional and conservative factions led by Rodrigo’s enemy Cardinal Della Rovere. But no longer a virgin, Giulia no longer has magic powers, and so to help Rodrigo, must cultivate other forms of power to help him succeed in the Conclave, and survive the deadly politics of 15th century Rome.

And so a story is told.

You probably have heard of the Borgias before, and may have seen, for example, the Showtime series The Borgias, with Jeremy Irons as the titular character. Giulia Farnese is an important secondary character in that series, even as it focuses on the Borgias more directly. Here, by making Giulia the primary focus, we get a look at events that are covered in the premiere episode of that series, but with Giulia’s perspective.

With Giulia as the focus, we do get Rodrigo as a major secondary character, as well as other Borgias and the other major characters in late 15th century Rome. Yes, the infamous Lucrezia Borgia is here, but she’s a 12 year old girl. She’s curious, bright, intelligent, and devoted to her father’s success. She is, at this stage in her life, nothing like what her infamy brought her. Also note the aforementioned Showtime series definitely aged her up. She also is, in this novel, most definitely Giulia’s protégé. Giulia may only be eighteen herself (again, the show aged her up), but she provides a female role model for Lucrezia. And their interactions are among the most delightful in the book.

Also, let’s talk about the fantastic elements, since the book does provide more than a patina of historical fantasy that Graham started in the first book. For while she may not think she is a magical “Dove” anymore, Giulia soon learns that while she thought she was finished with magic once she became Rodrigo’s lover, magic, and the higher powers, are not finished with her. Both those who would support her, and those who would seek to tear her down.

It’s a very sensual and sensuous book, and readers of Graham before are not going to be surprised by this. Not just sexual and carnal pleasures, mind you, but the entire world is brought with all the senses in mind. We get to feel, to smell, to taste, to see and to touch the late 15th century Rome that Giulia inhabits. The charm of having breakfast with a friend, spreading soft cheese over bread. The deadly darkness of the streets of Rome at night. The elegant seductiveness of a dance and a party. And much more. Graham’s writing brings us into Giulia’s world, life, passions and desires in a fully immersive way.

There is a lot of talk in SFF circles these days about romantasy: fantasy with a strong romance focus and theme. Although this novel does not claim that title, I think that this novel definitely would qualify for those looking for such work. Giulia is plainly in a romantic relationship with Rodrigo and considers him the love of her life, quite loyally so. Time and again, people outside her think she is in it for the money alone (the simony of the Borgias is portrayed as being part and parcel of the times and is not judged too negatively thereby), and Giulia insists, to others and to herself that she is not. And indeed, we see opportunities where Giulia could, if her heart was truly for gold and not Rodrigo, where she could “feather her own nest” and she does not take them.

Yes, some readers may find it distasteful that Giulia is indeed a third of Rodrigo’s age, and indeed, that does get brought up in the book as well. Graham shows this as a meeting of minds as well as hearts and souls. Together, on all three strands, she depicts Giulia and Rodrigo coming together, the Dove and the Bull (The Bull is a symbol of House Borgia). It may be a May-December romance, but the author makes it believable and more importantly, sympathetic to the reader.

And Giulia is a person a lot of readers can relate with. She’s curious, intelligent, loves to read, and seeks out books. Not just magical books, as part of the fantastic elements of this novel, but just books in general, in a world that Gutenberg has not yet set aflame with his invention. Giulia loves literacy, thought and that way of transmitting knowledge and story and that love comes across the page to us. One could easily imagine sitting to a lunch with Giulia and discussing Plutarch, Dante, and more. The novel is also full of allusions and references to books and writers for the savvy reader to discover.

Graham has done an excellent job here in making The Borgia Dove a standalone novel even as it builds on the life of Giulia and her upbringing from the first novel. While I would never want to turn you away from reading the first book, if you wanted to start the series here (perhaps you are a fan of Jeremy Irons’ portrayal or the whole very cut and thrust life of the Borgias), or just have limited time, I think you completely and utterly could begin here. Unlike the first book, which takes place over a number of years as Giulia grows up, learns who and what she is, and gets plunged into matters, the focus of this book, time-wise, is much narrower. Much of the book takes place during the week or so of that Papal Enclave that, spoilers for 500 years ago, will make Rodrigo into Pope Alexander VI. But what Giulia’s story brings to a story already told is her, female perspective, and the secret magical history of those who would oppose and cast down Rodrigo, and what Giulia must do, and is willing to do, in order to preserve her lover’s life, power and position.

Given the complex richness of Giulia’s life, and of course now the whole Borgia project, I look forward to what Graham will do in the third volume. I think it will be a challenge, since as hazy as history goes for most people, the Borgias are a name that still involve a lot of negativity and while the first two books have focused specifically on Giulia and kept people like the young Lucrezia in minor roles, going forward with the series means Graham will have an uphill climb in further changing people’s perceptions of Rodrigo, Lucrezia and the rest. I look forward to seeing how she takes on this challenge.

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Highlights:

• 15th Century Rome and Papal Politics strongly on display
• Giulia Farnese is a captivating character to capture your heart and mind
• Sensuous and immersive writing to bring you into Giulia’s world.

Reference: Graham, Jo, The Borgia Dove, [Candlemark and Gleam, 2024]


POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Review: A Blackened Mirror by Jo Graham

A Blackened Mirror is a fascinating and deep turn into secret Historical Fiction from Jo Graham.

 Giulia Farnese has a problem, and it is a rather large one. She is bright, intelligent, curious, but her dowry is not large and she is growing up in a situation that seems to have destined for a life of obscurity and quiet desperation. Until a chance encounter brings her into the circles of a powerful family in Rome, a marriage, and eventually meeting one of the most infamous men in history.  To say nothing of the demon Asmodeus...

This is the story of Jo Graham’s turn to secret Historical fiction, A Blackened Mirror.

Secret histories are elusive, slippery things. Most especially ones that involve magic.  How do you show the events we know from history (or at least can be researched) and yet find the room to put not only events we haven’t seen but add a supernatural element, plausibly, to the mix. What Graham does in A Blackened Mirror is to use the beliefs and ideas of the time, belief in communion with demons (and angels) as sources of information and power. Giulia turns out, in Graham’s secret historical world, to be a Dove, an innocent virgin who has always been able to see, but is turned to the purpose of being the mouthpiece for a demon. The fact that she is ostensibly married to a lunk who has been very carefully instructed not to deflower her so that she can remain that innocent virgin is a continual source of conflict and frustration for her.

Giulia’s existence as a mouthpiece for a demon, untouched and unwanted by her husband, kept in a house in Rome basically just for this role alone, is an intolerable one to her and is the focus of this very character-driven work. Giulia is also bright enough to realize that this role for her is a limited one. She can’t be kept as their ‘Dove’ forever, untouched by her husband, used merely for the demonic ritual. Eventually she will outlive her usefulness, and she will be left without resources, support, children. Her brother Alessandro too far away to help, no other allies or help. 

That is something else that the novel gets very right. While this is a tale from a woman’s perspective, and shows the power and ability of the main character, it is firmly and completely grounded in the time and it shows the realpolitik  and calculations that a woman needs to make in this time and place to survive. It is a very patriarchal society, and finding power and security in such a world is a very difficult thing to achieve. Giulia’s story, really, internally, is a sense of balance for her. She needs to find a place to stand, a life to lead, to find herself some sense of stability and security. Life is tough, life is hard and Giulia understands that. Throughout the events of A Blackened Mirror, finding that backing, that security.  But at the same time, Giulia Farnese has the competing urge within her for the life that she *wants*. She wants a life and an opportunity to learn, to grow, to fulfill her potential. Throughout the novel, Graham makes her heroine intellectually curious, a reader in an age where few women are taught reading, someone excited by what would call the Italian Renaissance. But to be a woman who has access to that intellectual richness is a far more perilous path for Giulia, for it is a role and place in society that is far less secure, and one might even say, far less respectable were she even to achieve that role. 

Even among the major plotlines of the novel, the political motivations and moves that Giulia, as the Dove, gets caught up in, the major conflict of the novel is this character one. The comparison in my mind is Alma Alexander’s retelling of the Theodora story in her novel Empress. Callidora, lowly born, rises to power and eventually as wife to the future Emperor. But at every step in that novel, there is the conflict of trying to find a life of security versus what her heart, her mind, her desire pulls her toward. How that conflict is resolved is central to her story, and so it is in this novel as well.  

Going back to the theme of Secret Histories again, this is a secret history, not an alternate history, and so readers who are familiar with Giulia’s life are going to know how this story is going to run. It is NOT a secret or a spoiler in this novel to say, then, that Giulia is destined to become the mistress of the fearsome Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. Perhaps if the name Rodrigo Borgia is not familiar to you immediately (especially if you never watched the TV series The Borgias), then the name of his daughter, Lucrezia Borgia, will ring a bell with you.  Lucrezia is an important character in this novel, to be sure. However, Lucrezia is nine years old.  She’s a somewhat precocious nine year old, but she is not the stereotype of the man-killing femme fatale that she is often tarred with in popular culture. I fully expect, however, given the nuance that Graham gives Giulia, Rodrigo and the other characters here, that in future novels (and yes, this is the first in a series) that she will develop interestingly. As well, of course and more important, Giulia. She IS one of the most important figures of her time, and even by the end of this novel, her story is only getting started.

To go more generally on the novel, the worldbuilding in the story is deep and rich and immersive. Graham gives us a very intimate view of life in Italy in the late 15th century. Giulia’s point of view, on her home estate and in Rome, is intimate, nuanced and compelling. The Rome of this era is very different than the Rome of the Ceasars, or will soon be in any event, with the Medieval Era of Rome fading, and the Roman Renaissance just about to kick off. The power politics between the Roman families and factions feels particularly well rendered. The Papal seat is the big prize that all the families are maneuvering over, but there is plenty of nuances and opportunities for these families to get advantage over each other (which of course, feeds right into why Giulia was brought here!)

There is a strong focus on the numinous  in the novel as well. There are the strong Christian elements, given Rome, the Vatican and the focus on their power politics already mentioned, and much of the theology is straight up Catholic doctrine in that regard. There are characters of all sorts of religiosity in the book, with differing levels and types of belief. But it is not strictly Christian theology and religiosity in the book, for Giulia feels very drawn to Prosperina. Aka Persephone. That identification with Persephone and the Persephone is a strand that follow Giulia throughout the book, and it shows how the Hellensitic knowledge and beliefs and idea would and did influence the Italian Renaissance.

A Blackened Mirror shows the strength and range of the author, and I look forward to more of La Bella Farnese’s story in subsequent volumes

The Math

Baseline Assessment:8/10

 Bonuses: +1  for a strong central character and rich and deep nuance in her story

+1 for interesting and crunchy theological worldbuilding

 Penalties: -1 the single POV shows strength, but the lack of additional points of view do limit the book slightly

 Nerd Coefficient: 9/10

 Reference: Graham, Jo A Blackened Mirror [Candlemark and Gleam, 2023]

 POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.