An excellent example of the art of being a director

Rating: 8/10 (5 February 2016)

Ron Howard famously made audiences fear that the Apollo 13 astronauts would not be able to guide their damaged spacecraft back to earth, a pretty neat trick given the film told the story of a well-publicized event where the fate of Jim Lovell and company was well-known. Ridley Scott maybe on-ups him by translating the science fiction procedural "The Martian" into a film that makes you (in your less mindful moments) wonder how much the film reflects the real events (perhaps these are real but future events?). Also credit Scott for making a "Castaway"-like story of one man isolated and trapped into a compelling narrative. The challenge all the greater than Castaway given the amount of straight up math involved in the book (what's is a hexadecimal anyway and how does one help you communicate?). So no Academy Award nomination for Scott? Well it is up against "Room" where Lenny Abrahamson faced the challenge of recreating 2 people stuck in a room. Anyway, Matt Damon does get a best acting nom basically for being a likable guy who is good at math which required Damon to stretch - at least as far as the math part goes. He's favored to win largely as The Academy's way of saying: "Suck it Leo". The remainder of the cast is not terribly consequential, the writing is decent if a little math-heavy and the story satisfying. In short, get you STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) friends together and enjoy.