The Martian (2015, dir. Ridley Scott, US/UK) by Kymm Zuckert

“Mars will come to fear my botany powers.”

The Martian is, for me, a travel movie. I watched it one time on a plane, and ever since then I have always looked for it while traveling. I am traveling now, and was thrilled to find and rewatch it this week. 

There is a crew out on Mars doing science, including Matt Damon as Mark Watney, our Martian, thus named because of a huge storm arising, where Mark gets knocked out and the crew has to leave without him, thinking him dead. 

Mark comes to, realizing his dilemma, and has to, to quote himself, “Science the shit out of this.” And basically, that’s what this movie is about, our watching Mark slowly work through his problems one by one, how to survive until they figure out a way to rescue him, how to grow food on a planet where nothing can grow, how to communicate with NASA back on earth, each little triumph, each little setback, it all keeps you riveted. 

At the same time, we see NASA’s side, finding out that he is alive, figuring out what to do, and also the Mars crew, saddened by his loss, and then finding out that they had left him. 

The cast is just full of all-stars, Jessica Chastain as the disco-loving captain of the Mars mission, with Michael Peña and Sebastian Stan among her crew, and on the ground we have Jeff Daniels as the head of NASA, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig, Benedict Wong, Sean Bean, and, in my favourite small role, Donald Glover as the engineer who figures out how to (spoiler alert), bring Mark home. 

I remember there being a huge fuss about it being nominated for Best Musical or Comedy at The Golden Globes, let alone that it won, but it is really funny, and a comedy/drama can fit into either category, it shouldn’t be punished for having layers. Although I see on IMDB that the rules were changed afterwards because the comedy people whined. 

It’s a funny, moving, interesting, entertaining film that also has a scene involving Sean Bean where they talk about Lord of the Rings, who was in the Lord of the Rings films, which is a sweet, crunchy little Easter egg, and what more could you ask? Nothing, that’s what. 

If you haven’t seen this movie, see if, and if you have, give yourself a treat and see it again. 

Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog