SPACEMAN ON NETFLIX IS TRYING TOO HARD

The Oscars are coming up this weekend and there is a large collection of movies set to be up for awards. The majority of the movies that are up for Best Picture are on the “artsy” side of things versus being box office smashes. That does make some sense since this is art we’re talking about, and it is objective. We know that comic book movies and action flicks are never considered even when they make several hundreds of millions of dollars. So, the list you see is mostly movies that weren’t commercially hits but were big in the arthouses. Occasionally there are movies that are in space or are science fiction that make good money, but also have a great direction, acting, and storyline. Netflix’s “Spaceman” starring Adam Sandler tries to balance itself on that tightrope.

In the vein of Castaway or Gravity you have a very minimal cast with Sandler as Jakub as the spaceman and Carey Mulligan as his wife Lenka who is back on Earth. Peter, played by Kunal Nayyar is Jakub’s handler back at ground control who is his only real tether back to the planet. Jakub is halfway through his mission to a mysterious cloud at the edge of the solar system that may hold the keys to how the Universe began. He is to study and collect samples of the cloud. The problem is that his mission lasts about a year and as he has hit the halfway point he is starting to feel the weight of his loneliness. He can talk to Peter and has a way to call Lenka, but it’s not the same as having someone right in front of him for interaction. We are also shown that Lenka is having her own stress back home and has decided to leave Jakub. With his sanity teetering Jakub begins to truly question it when he hears a voice. He soon learns that the voice belongs to a being on his ship that is voiced by Paul Dano. In most of these types of movies the alien is strange, but usually humanoid in form of at least a tolerable shape. This alien looks like a giant spider. Is it there to hurt or eat Jakub and have him die in space or is it there to learn about humans? Furthermore, does it even exist or is it a figment of Jakub’s stressed mind due to his isolation and the fact that Lenka isn’t answering his calls. Just to give even more of a twist: all these people are Czechoslovakian and are racing the Koreans to the cloud.

I don’t exactly know what this movie is going for. It definitely is going for the arthouse vibe and not just being a sci-fi horror movie. Sandler is playing WAY out of his usual characters, but it is serviceable acting to the overall feel of the film. Paul Dano as the voice of the space spider that Jakub names Hanus is eerie in his delivery, and it fits the creepy feeling of the film. As Jakub continues his travel to the cloud, he has discussions with Hanus, and the spider seems to be able to access Jakub’s memories and make him remember moments. Hanus says he is trying to learn about humans and why they are traveling into space after his own race and planet were destroyed by another race. You spend the entirety of the movie trying to figure out if Hanus is going to eat Jakub at some point. Is Hanus even really there? Ground control can’t see him because there are cameras on the spaceship that aren’t working. Is that convenient for an actual alien being there or for Jakub’s mental situation? Those questions prevail throughout the majority of the film as the two form an uneasy friendship. This movie isn’t great. All the props, costumes, and scenery are purposely made to look like they are from the 1960s. It doesn’t look cheap, but it is distracting at times. The story of whether the alien is helping the human or setting him up to be his next meal is played well. The special effects are done extremely well with beautiful shots of space and Hanus is creepy as hell. He either just sits in a spot staring or slowly moving from one spot to another like he’s getting ready to pounce. Maybe the creepiest part was when I realized he wasn’t speaking with Jakub through telepathy but that he had a small mouth that moved when he spoke. The back and forth of the two space travelers can get tedious as Hanus tries to figure out what humans are about and, in a way, try to help Jakub. We shift back to Earth at times to see where Lenka has gone after leaving home. The shots are all very dark and rainy looking. There is no joy in the scenes or the movie. I mean, we know it’s not a film about joy, but the depression of the film puts a heaviness on the viewer that feels like you can’t crawl out of. There are no real action scenes unlike the previously mentioned films that gave us reasons to feel concern for the characters. You just want this film to basically be over because it’s not going to give you what you want. If you decide to watch it just know you’re not going to see an epic space adventure or a horror movie. It’s not good, but unfortunately, it’s not one of those so-bad-its-good movies either. You can skip this one or just watch enough to be creeped out by an alien space spider.