Fly Me to the Moon

This crowd-pleasing historical dramedy has heart, humor, and two charming leads. In his sophomore directorial feature, Greg Berlanti, working from a script by Rose Gilroy, blends an opposites-attract period workplace romcom with a historical space-race drama and a movie-within-a-movie comedy. While not all aspects of Fly Me to the Moon work equally well -- the romance spends a lot of time on the back burner while Kelly and Cole run around putting out figurative (and occasionally literal) fires -- overall this is a fun and surprisingly funny movie (the latter mostly thanks to Jim Rash, who plays Lance, the hilariously exacting director Kelly hires to prep the fake landing). Tatum is believable as a military pilot-turned-NASA launch director whose sense of honor is at direct odds with Kelly's capacity to lie (whether about her name, her alma mater, her accent, or pretty much anything) to get what she wants. In addition to Rash, who's a gifted comedic actor, notable supporting characters include Harrelson as the know-it-all, "this never happened" Nixon operative; Ray Romano as Cole's second in command; and Anna Garcia as Kelly's younger, progressive assistant, Ruby.

Fly Me to the Moon isn't a film to see for historical accuracy when it comes to the Cold War, what did and didn't happen leading up to the Apollo 11 launch, or the history of NASA. There are plenty of other biographical and historical dramas for that. And, yes, it's a bit odd to play into a real conspiracy theory about the moon landing, but that's part of the humor. This isn't Apollo 13 or The Right Stuff, nor does it strive to be that kind of fact-based drama. Frankly, the only women in those movies were supportive wives, so there's a certain joy in one that centers around a pioneering (if fictional) woman whose appeal is so broad and intelligence so keen that she can (nearly) always get her way. For some history swirled into a romcom, this is a winner.