Richard “Beebo” Russell
“#SKYKING” My rating: B (Hulu)
91 minutes | Np MPAA rating
Most documentaries aim to neatly answer our questions.
Patricia Gillespie’s “#Skyking” leaves us in limbo.
In 2018 28-year-old Richard “Beebo” Russell, who worked on the tarmac at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, singlehandedly stole an empty Q400 turboprop air liner and, without benefit of formal flight training, took it on a aerial joyride.
He was in the air for 75 minutes, watching the fuel gauge approach empty. Then he crashed on an island in Puget Sound. He did not survive.
Apparently he didn’t plan to.
The backbone of this riveting documentary is the audio tape of Beebo’s radio exchanges with a Seattle air traffic controller. The tape was only recently released and filmmaker Gillespie had the inspired idea of having the recorded conversation play while Beebo’s friends and family members heard it for the first time.
This setup allows Gillespie to stop the playback so that these individuals can respond to what they’ve just heard. Along the way we learn a great deal about Beebo.
That he was fun loving and goofy. That he was a devout Christian. That he grew up in small-town Alaska, was a high school athlete. He met his wife Hannah while attending college in Oregon, and they later opened a bakery together.
The Beebo who emerges from the tape recording is friendly but evasive. He’s embarrassed at having been hit with air sickness (or it could just be a bad case of nerves) and apologizes for making a mess in the cockpit. He advises ground control that he has no intention of hurting anyone, and comments on the beauty of the mountain he is circling.
He does ask the perplexed controller if the Q400 is capable of making a barrell roll. Told the aircraft was definitely not designed for such shenanigans, Beebo went ahead and did a successful barrell roll anyway.
Remember, this was the first time the young man had even been in an airplane cockpit.
The question hanging over all this is why? What drove Beebo to this act?
We learn that he was upset that his career was going nowhere. But is that reason enough for suicide?
Maybe marital issues? We may never know, since his widow refused to participate in the filmmaking process.
What we’re left with is the impression of a likable young man whose demons were kept in check until a final defiant statement in the air over Seattle.
Ana de Armas
“BALLERINA” My rating: C+ (HBO Max)
124 minutes | MPAA rating: R
“Ballerina” does not start off promisingly.
Set in the John Wick universe (Keanu Reeves makes a brief appearance) it centers on Eve (Ana de Arias), who as a little girl lost her father to assassins and has been raised by a crime syndicate both to dance ballet and serve as a killing machine. (Talk about multi-tasking!!!!)
Yeah, it’s a “La Femme Nikita” clone, and not a particularly good one. Not even pop-up appearances by Ian McShane and the late Lance Reddick reprising their “John Wick” roles can dispel the aura of cheesy revenge melodrama.
But here’s the thing…if you can sit through the gosh-awful opening scenes, director Len Wiseman and his crew unleash a slew of spectacularly choreographed fight sequences. Yes, they’re utterly preposterous, featuring staggering body counts while de Armas’ Eve absorbs enough punishment to lay low a battalion of tough guys. Yet she keeps on shooting, kicking, leaping and punching — a veritable Energizer Bunny of mayhem.
The film climaxes with a gloriously over-the-top segment in which our girl finds herself in a scenic alpine village which is the headquarters of a rival gang (Gabriel Byrne is the chief baddy).
Turns out everybody in the burg — from the barmaid at the inn to a young couple casually dining in their ski outfits — is a trained killer.
The acting? Well, there’s not much of it. But perhaps that’s the point — just keep a straight face long enough to sell the silliness.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 