‘Good Night Oppy’ Review: Ryan White’s Thrilling Mars Rover Doc Is Guaranteed to Send Space Geeks Into Orbit
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film Critic Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity — the stars of Ryan White’s inspirational and wonderfully engaging “Good Night Oppy” — were designed to last 90 days on the Red Planet.
Instead, they went right on exploring the alien terrain for years, sending invaluable data and images back to NASA the whole time.
For scientists, students and astronomy buffs around the world, the two robots became mascots for a historic mission, the goal of which was to find evidence of past water on Earth’s nearest neighbor, for that in turn could suggest the possibility of life on Mars.
To call the MER experiment a success would be an understatement, but it wasn’t until this delightful documentary that a more important point became clear: As it turns out, for nearly 15 years, there was life on Mars: Within the opening minutes of “Good Night Oppy,” White convinces us that these two solar-powered, remote-controlled research tools weren’t just machines but sentient characters with personalities, every bit as relatable as Pixar’s lovable trash compactor, WALL•E, or the Johnny 5 droid from “Short Circuit.” White, who has a talent for making unusual subjects relatable in docs such as “Assassins” and “The Case Against 8,” anthropomorphizes Spirit and Oppy by quoting members of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who use gendered pronouns to describe the rovers, talking about them like members of their own families. “Once the rover’s on Mars, it has its own life … and it needs to be given love,” says one. “Sometimes, she has a mind of her own,” observes another.
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