Two documentaries: 'Goodnight Oppy' and 'The Return of Tanya Tucker'

 Goodnight Oppy 

In 2003, NASA sent two rovers to Mars. They were supposed to function for 90 days. Amazingly, Spirt, one of the rovers, remained operational for six years. Oppy (short for opportunity) sent back data and explored the planet for nearly 15 years. The documentary Goodnight Oppy explains how all this happened while highlighting the cooperative effort required to execute a complex space mission. Oppy eventually helped establish an important fact:  There once had been water on Mars, which meant that the planet could have supported microbiological life. Angela Bassett narrates a movie that, like the people involved in this mission, humanizes the rovers, regarding them as part of an extended technological family. Anthropomorphism was difficult to resist: The rovers were built at 5'2" in height so that they would reflect the eye level of the average human. At the risk of dooming the movie, I’ll say that it would make great viewing for kids. Goodnight Oppy makes it clear that engineering and science (sometimes in conflict here) can open doorways to interesting careers. Secondly, the movie shows what can be achieved when when specialists join forces to work toward a common goal. Director Ryan White seems a bit prone to corniness.  But, hey, Goodnight Oppy is inspiring nonetheless.

The  Return of Tanya Tucker -- Featuring Brandi Carlile 

I'm not a country music buff, but that didn't stop me from enjoying The Return of Tanya Tucker -- Featuring Brandi Carlile, a documentary about a once-hot star who makes a comeback. Tucker's return was engineered by another country star, Brandi Carlile, a lifelong Tucker fan who patiently teases out Tanya's best work for a new album. The movie also functions as an abridged biography of Tucker, charting her life from teenage success to encounters with Hollywood, her relationship with Glenn Campbell, as well as her fade from glory. But it's present-tense spark that energizes the movie. Director Kathlyn Horan captures the byplay between Carlile and Tucker who, without even trying, shatter stereotypes about country music. Carlile's gay and the 64-year-old Tucker sports a pink dye job. Rambunctious and candid, Tucker's live-wire style sometimes clashes with her insecurities about trying to revive her career. The film ends in triumph with Tucker winning a Grammy. Watching the creative process unfold can be boring, but hanging out with Tucker and Carlile makes for its own brand of entertainment.

Bob's Cinema Diary: 4/2/19 -- Ask Dr. Ruth and Red Joan

Some weeks, the number of movies challenges even those of us who tend to review as much as possible. This is one of those weeks. As a result, I'm trying something a bit different; i.e., I'm going to write about as much as possible in the most efficient way. I'm calling it a "diary" even though it reflects nothing about my life -- other than the fact that much of it has been measured in movies. Make what you will of that.

Ask Dr. Ruth

At 90, Dr. Ruth Westheimer remains a kick. The intrepid sex therapist and giver of advice possesses enough spunk and spirit to fill two documentaries. Fair to say that director Ryan White lucked out by getting Westheimer to participate in his bio-doc. Amusing and lively, Westheimer fills Ryan's Ask Dr. Ruth with the charm, candor, and personality that made her a natural for radio, television and offbeat celebrity. Hearing Dr. Ruth talk about subjects as varied as masturbation, orgasm, and anal and oral sex is a bit like listening to candid sex talk from the Jewish grandmother you wish you had had. Those unfamiliar with Dr. Ruth's story will learn much about a woman who left Germany for a Swiss orphanage as a child; her parents were murdered in the Holocaust. We learn how she became educated and how she made her unabashed way into a world that easily could have crushed her. I wish that Ryan hadn't relied on animated sequences to tell the story of Westheimer's war years as a child, but that may be a quibble. Westheimer, who has lived in the same Washington Heights apartment for 50 years, has the kind of star power that belies her diminutive stature. Her intriguing story and her commitment to speaking frankly about sex make the film irresistible. The thing about asking Dr. Ruth a question is that -- like it or not -- you're going to get an answer.
Red Joan

Red Joan, a movie that explores the motives behind a treasonous act in which a young woman provides the Soviets with secrets that lead to their development of an atomic bomb, might have been better had Judi Dench -- as the Joan of the title -- been used as a little more than a framing device. Arrested years after her crime, Dench's Joan has flashbacks in which she recalls the bulk of the story, which centers on her love life and gradual emergence as an idealistic physicist. Sophie Cookson plays the young Joan. Cookson is fine as a bright young woman who, while at Cambridge, falls for a Jewish Communist (a cliche) portrayed by Tom Hughes. The movie doesn't establish sufficient context to explain why many bright young people became enamored with Russia during the 1930s. Another leftist (Tereza Srbova) introduces Joan to Hughes' Leo, who appears throughout the story as he tries to persuade Joan about the rectitude of his cause while raising suspicions that he’s simply using her. Stephen Campbell Moore plays the head of the British research team that's trying to develop the bomb in an information-sharing effort with Canada. The movie's geopolitics produce little by way of sizzle, and director Trevor Nunn's effort to turn Joan into a peace-seeking heroine seem, at best, naive. In sum, fine cast; tepid result.