I was baffled – the quality of this movie cannot be underrated, but it certainly will – if only by the most numb and downtrodden. What was that?! Brilliant. Adam Sandler the unlikely character study in his most earnest and „reigned in“ acting I have ever seen him delivering. Sandler is great, the CGI is great, the backdrops and props are retro-sci-fi 70s style as if Alien was made only a year ago.
This movie shouldn‘t exist, made and distributed in 2024.
The got a Czech space program attempt right (ridiculous at our point in time, but not in the 50/60s, when Russia was competing with the USA), with an American comedian actor, without being cheesy. Polish cinema, look here to learn how to be humble and high class (no, The Witcher, A Girl And and Astronaut did not deliver really…) The pace is not for everyone, I reckon, but this is the best piece of deep sci-fi I have seen in years. The last one that grabbed me was the remake of Blade Runner, which had a similar ring to it, and delivered along the same lines, in sentiment, cinematography, props and depth. Also here there was very divided critical acclaim. Don’t trust the trolls.
I wondered in this case in 2017: „…is it possible that one can do it better, excelling on the shoulder of a giant? Yes. Remarkable and on spot, homing in on the vision, not the style. Villeneuve is giving the story breath and space, making Ridley Scott‘s iconc blueprint look ‚cluttered‘? Wow!“
Don‘t get me wrong, this no Blade Runner, Spaceman is sci-fi reflection at its highest levels, a parable standing on the shoulders of a young giant (who stands of in the broad shoulders of classical sci-fi thinkers of the East, Isaac Asimov, Karel Capek, Stanislaw Lem, the Strugatsky brothers, Zamyatin etc. who were on par and sometimes ahead of Dick, Gibson, Edmond Hamilton, Bruce Sterling & Co.
The author of the book this gem is based upon published the novel in the year Blade Runner 2049 came into the cinemas, and the novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař has its roots in all the stories which came before it, where another country than the US is heading successfully into space, making this endeavour as diverse as humanity.
The way Johan Renck is delivering it pays hommage to all the films which came before it, from Kubrick to Nolan, but he holds back not to suffocate this subtle human tale. Does it need to be in space? Sort of, yeah,…the Ocean is a possible setting, but the visibility of a phenomenon in the sky everybody can see and is affected by cannot be matched by the depths of the oceans or its strange creatures, however sentient one imagines them to be.
This is a hallucinatory tale which need to venture out of our comfort zone, out into the void, which is suddenly brimming with light and activity, with eerie closeness of „the other“ which FINALLY, is not immediately threatening us as a vulnerable species. Enemy Mine (1985) was very good along these lines, too, to rather bridge than oppose, to learn to love than to destroy, to embrace rather than to fight what you do not know of.
This film does everything right, and no – no dog fights through asteroid fields, flashy chases or battles among the stars await. This is a silent, cultural and cultured attempt about loneliness and approaching what you fear most. Highly recommended for all who shy away confronting their fears and prejudices (well, that would be almost all of us, I guess 😉 )
This movie brings you closer to the universe, and takes no candy coloured hostages, needing Marvel-like fun to brush over our human condition, which is very much endangered when we venture out alone, away from our blue bubble of water and oxygen. There is a good guess that we share that with all the space venturing creatures in the universe – and this visual poem underlines the fraying madness of when we are too bold and ignorant and forget to be centred in our relations and cherish and care of our cradle before we face the unknown.