Netflix’s Spaceman Review: Slow, Sad Sci-Fi

It’s hard to relate to truly extraterrestrial creatures because they are, well, extraterrestrial. The best-performing ones have different cultures, biologies, and belief systems that make them distinct from humanity and therefore difficult to understand. The alien in the Netflix movie Astronaut is a recent example: a giant spider with writhing tentacles, a hauntingly human mouth, Paul Dano’s soothing voice, and the ability to experience time non-linearly. And yet, it’s also very relatable to this strange creature. He’s nosy, insightful, and prone to stress-relieving comforts; It’s creepy, sure, but I kind of love it. And paired with a remarkably restrained Adam Sandler as a frazzled astronaut, his presence makes for sad, soothing sci-fi.

Directed by Johan Renck and based on the novel Bohemian astronaut by Jaroslav Kalfař, Astronaut It follows a Czech astronaut named Jakub (Sandler) on a solo journey to explore a strange phenomenon called the Chopra Cloud somewhere near Jupiter. Jakub has few people to talk to: his supervisor Peter (Kunal Nayyar) is always near him to keep everything in order, and he can video chat with his wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan) thanks to a device that looks like a 1990s model. 80. arcade cabinet, but it is physically isolated. Things only get worse as the calls to Lenka become less and less frequent. This leads to spending a lot of time alone in the quiet of space, thinking.

And then, suddenly, he is no longer alone. Very early in Astronaut, Jakub is joined by a mysterious alien whom he eventually names Hanus (Dano). The giant spider has a fascination with humans and spent an unknown amount of time learning our history, language and customs. But he is especially attracted to Jakub: as a solo explorer, Hanus is attracted to the lonely astronaut. And once Jakub gets over the shock of, you know, a huge talking spider making a sudden appearance in his otherwise empty world, the two quickly connect.

Hanus has the ability to peer into Jakub’s thoughts and memories, and uses it to explore his past, but above all to understand the deterioration of his relationship with Lenka. it’s a little Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mindexcept that Hanus takes on a kind of therapist role: from his unbiased perspective, he can use details from Jakub’s life to discover how and why things turned out the way they did and then be brutally honest about his findings. Astronaut It starts out as a cute but strange buddy story, but eventually transforms into a raw exploration of loneliness and acceptance of our own personal failures.

Since much of the film takes place with two characters in the confines of a small spaceship, the performances are one of the main reasons the film works so well. Sandler sounds a little strange at first (he has a sort of Czech accent, but he also isn’t), but here he shows a new side of himself, one that’s neither completely dumb nor a bundle of tense nerves. He is quiet and reserved, with the haggard look of someone who struggles both mentally and physically. Dano, meanwhile, is alternately cold and warm, with an odd point of view (his race feels no guilt, for example) that, at times, becomes sentimental. (Turns out Nutella tastes a lot like a certain larval delicacy from her homeworld.) The two get along: Jakub wants to ignore the truth, while Hanus can’t stop bringing it to the surface.

Over time, the story returns to its core science fiction mystery and Astronaut does a very good job of tying these threads together in a way that feels natural and ends on a hopeful note, without falling into a cliched happy ending. It’s sad, yes, but in a cathartic way and it almost makes you want to hug a talking spider. Even if Hanus would never be disappointed by that.

Astronaut is streaming now on Netflix.