REVIEW: SPACEMAN

4/5

Skinny Love.

107 Mins. Starring: Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin, Isabella Rossellini & Paul Dano. Screenplay: Colby Day. Director: Johan Renck. On: Netflix.

Intergalactic Christ. By the end of the Babylon zoo that is 'Chernobyl' and 'Downloading Nancy' Swedish director Johan Renck's 'Spaceman' on Netflix, 'Little Miss Sunshine' and 'Dumb Money' star Paul Dano sweetly and hauntingly addressing you as a "skinny human" will be part of your love language. And just wait until that tentacle like leg reaches out for a heartbreaking embrace. Tentacle? That's right, riddle me that! This is the man whose character once wrote love into his life for 'Ruby Sparks'. The Riddler of 'The Batman' who even penned a graphic novel on the iconic villain he redefined like Ledger. Now, he plays a creature in this feature that looks too good to spoil, but is in fact a spidery octopus that shares similarities with the real 'Enemy' of Jake Gyllenhaal at the end of that 'Dune' director Denis Villeneuve film. This frightening at first, but then fond arachnid even looks like him in the same vein that Josh Brolin sort of looks like Thanos. Vivid voice acting like 'Dogman' Caleb Landry Jones as the titular robot in Tom Hanks' 'Finch', Paul somewhat steals the show in what is essentially an Adam Sandler movie, lost in space and love with who Dano directed alongside Gyllenhaal for 2018's best 'Wildlife' look of the sort of human nature that even had MJ asking "why"?

If you believe they put a man on the stage that could moonwalk, then this is the movie for you. Based on the 'Spaceman Of Bohemia' book by Jaroslav Kalfař, this is one of Netflix's more nuanced and nicer movies in a glut of Oscar bait and big budget crowd (dis)pleasers. At the edge of our solar system, there are plenty of cerebral astronaut dramas as lonely as Matt Damon's 'Martian'. Specifically, the 'Solaris' and 'Ad Astra' of Damon's respective 'Oceans' co-stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Yet this is the only one that can hit the 'Interstellar' levels of Nolan's genius, with even more heart and Max Richter music off he scale like Zimmer. Just like there are plenty of 'Punch, Drunk Love' serious Sandler films playing straight for 'The Wedding Singer', 'Waterboy' and 'Happy Gilmore' (let's have a hand for the late, great Carl Weathers. Rest peacefully) comic legend. From the first film to really deal with the trauma of 9/11 in 'Reign On Me'. To the undeniable anxiety attack that was 'Uncut Gems' from the Safdie siblings. Even Netflix's basketball 'Hustle' last year balled with all of Sandler's 'Murder Mystery' and 'Ridiculous' movies as part of his deal with the streaming service. But here, the best of our 'Funny People' gets to show how serious he can be as he stirs us in the compelling craft of what seems to be a solo mission. Yearningly lonely with sallow skin, sunken eyes and dreams, Adam amazes in what a lesser actor would leave us yawning at. Adam Sandler belongs with the greats. Especially as he has shown us another note in how he can balance the two sides of life's divine comedy and great tragedy like no other. This spaceman that says, "it's all in your mind", kills it like Brandon Flowers.

Down back to earth and reflected in the black mirror of this science fiction, Carey Mulligan again show promise like no other young woman in this industry. Dealing with a loss of love and limited script and screen time with ample acting. A true, 'Maestro' following her Oscar nominated Bradley Cooper movie (also on N) with another award worthy performance that inspires the same isolation as Dano's 'Wildlife' amongst the raging fires of a hell hath scorched earth and a scorned marriage in all its restrained fury. Conducting herself with conviction in the face of the uncertainty of both love and life itself. With an adapted screenplay from Colby Day, 'The Big Bang Theory' star Kunal Nayyar explodes in this science. Whilst Swedish 'Chocolat' star Lena Olin adds even more gravity to this ground control. But it's the iconic Isabella Rossellini (who still has the greatest sitcom cameo ever, friends) who gives legend to this space genre legacy making movie. Out of this world, but brought right back down to earth with that familiar this of the life you thought you knew's disappointment, 'Spaceman' is a sobering solar system of stars, memories and multiverses. Showing us in this day and age where we untether ourselves from everything except our tech, it's high time we began to reach out again. Because, after all, you know what happens when you shoot for the moon. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Ad Astra', 'Interstellar', 'The Martian'.