Space as the Old West isn’t a new thing. Before Firefly, there was Outland. Before Outland, there was probably even something else.
“The girl is played by an appropriately low-key Sophie Tucker”
Sophie Thatcher, Tom!
Oops. I blame the 80s for making me averse to that name?
-Tom
That is a very evocative image on the Front Page.
This was great. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Mr Chick. I found this article illuminating:
This kind of blew my mind:
the film’s budget…came in under $4 million
This explains a lot:
I think that’s part of the reason it has a unique look. Instead of just hiring the folks who worked on The Martian or Alien: Covenant, they pulled together a disparate non-Hollywood group. It shows.
-Tom
Thanks for the reminder to watch this, Tom, and for letting me know I can stream it on Amazon. I have an acquaintance on FB that was constantly posting links to production updates for what seemed like forever but with no actual explanation or reason why I should care. You’ve given me that info, and it sounds neat.
This is now on Netflix. What an excellent movie! I’ve been down on the sci-fi genre lately as they’ve become endlessly more about the spectacle and ridiculous plots. This one works great. The technology is expertly made background, and is more often a hassle than a wow-feature. The characters are great and believable, with excellent performances from the two leads and others. The plot is very tight, almost a lesson for other films on how to package plot devices, e.g. the early mention of the ‘unusual prisoner execution’ which is never actually explained / resolved but is alternatively book-ended quite neatly at the end. Recommended.
I don’t know where you are, Scott, but I’ve been looking on Netflix and it isn’t there in the US. It was just added to Hulu, though. Just about to give it a watch now that I’ve finally caught up on season 3 of The Expanse- I guess I’m just in a spacefaring mood.
I didn’t like the movie that much. Maybe I don’t care about the alien forest that much. Everything between the landing and, ahem, meeting with a family didn’t capture me. It feels like space stuff is just fluff around the Western, not adding anything at all. Before and after I see all Tom talks about: it’s evocative. It’s a glimpse into an alien universe, yes.
My girlfriend and I didn’t like it that much either. I loved the production but we really struggled to make out a lot of the dialogue; odd turns of phrase and thick accents underneath a voice comms fuzz made it harder to follow and get into the whole thing. I wish we’d put subtitles on!
Edit: The economy of storytelling and language reminded me of Supergiant’s Bastion. It makes me very happy that sci-fi movies like this are still bring made.
Correction:
“they never loses [sic] sight”
I watched this last night. I thought I’d discovered something no one had ever heard of, since I’d never heard of it. A search revealed this thread. I should have known Tom has sussed out the existence of this movie somehow. Another great science fiction movie that tells a great tale. I was kind of in love with it when this song started playing at the start over the image of a planet and it’s green moon:
Btw, availability: The movie showed up on Kanopy under New Arrivals. So most people can probably watch it there like I did. If you local library or university doesn’t have Kanopy, I see that Hulu currently has the movie available as well.
@tomchick, it’s interesting that your mind went to Eugene from the Walking Dead. My own thoughts on his introduction were “this guy talks like he’s a Quentin Tarantino character”.
Ugh. Sincere apologies for having four posts in a row in this thread. It’s like I’m talking to myself. Anyway, I just wanted to note that this movie was recommended to me in Hulu “For Comedy fans”, which I thought was a bizarre reason for recommending this one. Is this really classified as a comedy for some reason? I find that perplexing.
Just saw this and wish I knew more of this world and the girl’s journey. Amazing production all the way through. The lack of exposition for many of the unknowns gave it a very unique flavor but left me wanting more at the same time.
Reminder: This is still on Hulu and Kanopy, for those that want to catch it, or see it again.
When are these guys going to make another movie? Jeez. Get on it already!