2018 took Steven Spielberg to SXSW With “Ready Player One”, a movie fully built around offering tribute and worship to the type of 80 -number films Spielberg helped popularize. Of course, the movie was not so good. Now director Jess Varley is trying to make a trend with the SXSW premiere of “Astronaut“A movie that refers to” Jurassic Park “,” close to meetings of the third kind “and even” et “while telling a psychological thriller about an astronaut coming home again. Unfortunately, just like Spielberg could not save” Ready Player One “even with Gundam size references, it can not help. do the first half of film Interesting and gives it to superfluous – and honest, quite puzzling – territory.
Kate Mara Stars like Sam Walker, an astronaut who returns home from his very first assignment in space. Since her reentry was more than a little uneven (which means she almost died after being hit by some mysterious object or power before Splashdown), Sam is limited to a high security house for medical testing and rehabilitation. All she wants to do is see her husband Mark (Gabriel Luna) and adopted daughter Izzy (Scarlet Holmes), but even though her father, General William Harris (Laurence Fishburne) visits more often on official government operations, she is as isolated on earth as she was in space. The security house is on a massive but still secluded property in the forest, the space can easily accommodate an entire NASA team, and it is before Sam learns about the elaborate underground facility just a secret bookcase away, where she can hide if the house enters Lockdown during an emergency or an infringement.
The first half of the movie (a fairly short clock of about 80 minutes plus lots of points) plays a little muted at the horror and plays more like a psychological thriller focusing on SAM’s isolation and paranoia to be back on earth. The use of symptoms related to astronauts that are recroned on earth as a way of exploring Sam who believes that there are strange things happening in the facility is smart (the filmmakers consulted a real astronaut on the effects of coming down and the process that eventually is not true. Arm that somehow continues to expand throughout the body indicates something else.
Things change when Sam begins to see what seems to be massive, strange creatures around the property – even if they do not show up on any security camera. Mara does an effective job of producing the increase in fear because more and more strange things are happening around the house and it becomes clear that she is not alone. The problem is that she can’t exactly talk to anyone about this because she resists her symptoms and hides observations for fear that she will not be allowed to go back to space. This makes the first half of the film’s excitement and an interesting introspection of the character’s psyche in a haunted house-style’s real nature takes a while to become clear.
Although the first half of “The Astronaut” evokes movies like Duncan Jones “Moon”, the movie becomes slightly more related to “Sputnik” just not anywhere so well. Varley uses the location of the safe house and the surrounding forest to build some effective sets, but during the last 15 minutes or the film takes a wild tone shift that seems to abandon every threat it introduced. There is an idea of multi -stopped households and adoptive families that the film seems to be trying to offer depths, but it fails to actually come up with some conclusion. Instead, the theme is apparently used to recreate scenes from “ET” but with visual effects closer to something like “Mac and me” – ambitious bonkers, but ultimately empty. Even when “The Astronaut” praises “Jurassic Park” and completely recreates the kitchen scene, it comes over as a Tom Nick, a reminder of better movies that actually have something to say.
Rating: d
“The Astronaut” premiered at SXSW 2025. It is currently seeking US distribution.
Want to keep you updated on IndieWire’s movie Reviews And critical thoughts? Subscribe here To our recently launched newsletter, in review by David Ehrlich, where our main film critic and Head Review’s editor rounds off the best new reviews and streaming choices along with some exclusive Musings – all only available for subscribers.
