Spaceman

This is one of those I got to see on the Netflix Preview Club in October of 2022. I feel like I posted about it somewhere, but maybe not. It definitely could have changed a lot since then, but this movie was slooooooow and I didn't connect at all with what they wanted me to connect with in terms of Sandler's character. It is also a weird fucking movie, but apparently the book it is based on is the reason for that.

Sandler was fantastic, but his character and the emotional journey they wanted me to take with him just completely failed for me. Not through any failure on his part, I'm almost certain of that.

I'm interested to see what people think of it, and if they fixed any of the problems I had with it. I doubt I'll ever watch it again though, and I can't remember too many specifics, so I'll just have to hope that I can remember stuff when you guys talk about it.

Wife and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but we also are down with slow boil character study sci-fi movies. Closest thing I can compare it to would be Moon. A lot of the basic premises are iffy, due to adherence to the source material. But the acting, character study, and dialog are top notch.

We watched tonight, thanks for the recommendation. I thought it was amazing. That’s probably understandable as Solaris is also one of my favorite movies. Spaceman is really good. The idea of Adam Sandler as an astronaut with an alien spider is crazy but it works. Very quite, it has moments of light heartedness, and meaningful emotional tugs.

I don’t note anything about Jaroslav Kalfař but it is hard to imagine him not being heavily influenced by Stanislav Lem and/or Tarkovsky.

Can’t believe this scored so low on IMDB and RT. This is why we don’t get good things like this often.

Bandwagon said:

I don't know man. It just felt like sandler made a self therapy movie.

Void said it well - Sandler was great, but the story did nothing for me

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I was thinking about that last night while watching, and maybe it is just real easy for me to begin to relate to things in movies like this. Especially if you hang it against SciFi backdrop. Put this movie in 1600s Italy and it is entirely possible I hate it.

Having said that, from a relatability standpoint; putting your own needs above your spouse’s for instance. I’ve chosen to take trips and leave my wife at home with our infant, putting my work and career ahead of staying with her, and I’ve experienced the stress that can cause in a relationship. On the same idea I allowed career pursuit to really damage my first marriage. I was hyper focused on climbing as fast as I could and it really screwed me up. We were long distance for over a year due to relocation. The marriage didn’t end for a long time after that, but the damage was done and I was too young to understand.

We lost a couple of pregnancies (current wife) early and thankfully I was here to be with her, so watching Spaceman treat his wife the way he did really hit me about how there’s no way I could imagine that. Feeling of loneliness and isolation, seeking out it. Those are just a few examples. I’m nowhere near the asshole he was, good Lord.

I got about 20% through the book last night before falling asleep. It is good so far. Different. He’s going on an 8 month trip and shows some remorse about leaving her. It is only to Venus and not out past Jupiter. The product placement thing is funny and you can tell how they tried to bring it in to the film, not just with the bug spray. It also points out he’s a tenured astrophysicist thats was selected for the mission and not an astronaut. Don’t remember if that was said or implied in film. We’ll see if it resonates in book form as well.

Felt like Terrance Malick tried to make a non comedy Sandler flick. Spider buddy was fine, as was Sandler, but overall felt flat with the story itself.