Sometimes, you forget that when you critique something, there is a potential for the person you are critiquing to actually read the thing you wrote. Earlier, before being a blind film critic, I did get a couple of shoutouts for my reviews, even without the TomatoMeter approval. Probably the coolest one was Gina Prince-Blythwood who loved that I loved Beyond The Lights. Those in the industry seem to be built for criticism, but what about documentaries? I certainly have had filmmakers reach out, most of them about this thing called audio description that didn’t exist, or the fact that audio description DOES exist, and I just wasn’t provided it. One of the people in The Flagmakers, the documentary short from just a few years ago, commented on my video review, and just recently, Rocket Girl herself said Hi. Within mere hours of my video review going live, Eleni reached out to me. It was a pleasant nod, since I enjoyed the film, but I had mentioned that I wasn’t sure if kids always talked unfiltered when a documentary crew was around, because eventually someone will see that footage, like their parents. Think about everything you did in High School, and ask yourself if you would have wanted your parents to know about all of it, everything you said and did. Somewhere out there is a very pristine individual whose childhood was angelic, and would not mind telling their parents they spent the whole day in a locker, but most kids, are kids. If you’ve ever met one, you’ll be reminded you were one, and were you really like that to adults back then?

But with Eleni, she assured me that was how she talked, but she was actually less sure aobut her parents. I believe that. This feels like we’re watching a girl that will one day rule the world. She’s bound to do something great. And no, I didn’t write that because she’ll read it, which she probably did, but because this family friendly doc positions her right where we want our girls to be, in the middle of STEM, pushing into careers and fields that can often be male dominated, and continue to inspire those coming along behind her. We see her move from California to Virginia, where she spearheads this competition around literal rocket science. The goal is to create a rocket that goes at least 800 feet up, and comes back down, all with two eggs inside that didn’t break. I had a similar experience in high school, or maybe middle school, where we had eggs, and we had to create something, along with a parachute, that they could be dropped from a height without breaking. I didn’t get to shoot rockets off, and I came from a wild generation. They used to let us play outside. We didn’t have metal detectors. Our dress code was basically no bathing suits, or skirts too high. For some reason, girls always ahve a much more evolved dres code, don’t they? Like, it can be two pages about the exact length everything needs to be, how to wear hair, acceptable earrings, etc, and for guys it is usually something simple like “wear a shirt.

In this big bold beautiful world of education our kids now live in, it’s amazing to see that someone like Eleni still exists. There is a kid out there powered by their own internal thirst for knowledge, not for likes or follows, but for actually knowing why something works, or the science behind it so they can replicate it for themselves. Sure, we see Eleni with some fellow classmates, but the overall arc here is that she is shooting for the stars, literally and metaphorically. I’m not entirely sure how she will positively affect this world, only that she will.

This film feels like an easy pickup for Disney, like why wouldn’t they want this? They have their NatGeo brand that often releases feature documentaries, but considering the family branded content they have, Rocket Girl is exactly the kind of film you watch with your kids, so they can see someone close to their age doing something cool and smart, and then also being featured in a documentary. There are probably hundreds, maybe thousands of kids like Eleni all over4 the country right now, across the gender spectrum, all with the necessary tools and perseverance to succeed. They come from different backgrounds, with varying advantages or disadvantages, but in a world of social media disillusionment, it is refreshing to remember that they exist. I’m not suggesting Eleni specifically will one day rule the world, but someone like her will, and it is because even in a day of doomscrolling and doing social media challenges, or talking to AI chatbots, kids are still learning. Parents are still supporting the pursuit of knowledge, and a filmmaker took the time to remind us all, in the age of Linda McMahon running Education, that this stuff still matters, and kids are still pushing to learn.

Rocket Girl is inspirational and aspirational, both for the kids who want to be her, and the parents who dream their kids will succeed like Eleni. It celebrates the importance of knowledge.

Fresh: 7.4/10