Spaceman

The Czech cosmonaut Jakub Procházka is alone in space, sent to study a cloud called Chopra beyond Jupiter. As loneliness and the break with his wife Lenka wear him down, he finds a telepathic creature named Hanuš aboard. Johan Renck directed, from Jaroslav Kalfař's 2017 novel Spaceman of Bohemia. Adam Sandler plays Jakub and Paul Dano voices Hanuš. Hanuš makes him face his memories and his pain, and Jakub eventually reconciles with his wife. As the creature dies of a parasitic infection, Jakub reaches the Chopra cloud, which turns out to be a remnant of the beginning of the universe where all moments exist at once. It premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2024 and arrived on Netflix on 1 March 2024, after production delays caused by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Reviews were mixed. Fifty percent of 135 Rotten Tomatoes reviews are positive with a 5.5 average, the consensus saying the film has poignant themes but fails to engage consistently with its most interesting ideas. Metacritic sits at 55 from 35 reviews. Who it is for: viewers curious about quiet science fiction and Sandler in dramatic mode. Who it is not for: anyone wanting action. It is almost entirely one man talking to a creature.