WHAT IT'S ABOUT: It's 1977 in a small Georgia town, and all schoolgirl Christmas Flint (McKenna Davis) can think about is finding her way onto one of the Voyager Golden Records. These were the recordings launched into space that year which included everything from Mozart to Chuck Berry to a recording of greetings in dozens of languages and photographs showing the diversity of life on Earth.
The winners of the state's Birdie Scouts jamboree will get the opportunity to be immortalized on this document of human life, but Christmas is prevented from joining her local troop. So she rounds up her fellow "misfits" and starts her own, with Miss Rayleen (Viola Davis) serving as their reluctant leader.
MY SAY: At its best, "Troop Zero" evokes the wonder and mystery of outer space as seen from the perspective of a young girl. There are lovely scenes in this movie from the filmmaking duo Bert & Bertie that evoke the comfort to be found in contemplating the vastness of the universe. Earthbound problems like loneliness or grief or bullying at school seem infinitesimal when compared with the stars stretching across the wide open sky.
