My Cultural Diet

The Flight of the Navigator was my favorite movie as a kid — I must’ve watched it well over a dozen times on VHS — and it still holds up pretty well even today. Much of that’s due to Joey Cramer’s affecting and earnest performance as David Freeman, a 12-year-old boy who awakens eight years in the future with no memory of what’s happened to him and a mysterious connection to an alien spaceship. Cramer seemed on the verge of stardom in the late ’80s, but his post-Navigator life was dominated by drug abuse and various stints in jail and rehab. Life After the Navigator contains plenty of behind-the-scenes information about the film’s production thanks to numerous interviews with the cast and crew, all of whom obviously enjoyed their time making it. (I particularly enjoyed the interviews with the film’s conceptual artist and the two puppeteers who brought all of its aliens to life.) The documentary’s primary purpose, however, is chronicling Cramer’s life, and the former child actor opens up about his youth, experiences making the film, descent into addiction, and efforts to rebuild his life and career. If you don’t have any connection to Flight of the Navigator, then your mileage might vary here, but as a longtime fan, I found it alternately fascinating and moving, and I wish nothing but the best for Cramer’s ongoing recovery.

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