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Apr 22, 2021 · Stowaway. Three years ago, director Joe Penna and his co-writer, Ryan Morrison, made their feature filmmaking debut with “ Arctic ,” a spare survival story starring a snowbound Mads Mikkelsen awaiting rescue. The film was gripping in its understatement and use of silence—it was practically dialogue-free—and a riveting exercise in ...
On a mission headed to Mars, an unintended stowaway accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship's life support systems. Facing dwindling resources and a potentially...
- (110)
- Anna Kendrick
- Joe Penna
- Sci-Fi, Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Apr 22, 2021 · ‘Stowaway’ Review: Anna Kendrick and Toni Collette in a Catchy Outer-Space Morality Play. Joe Penna's mission-to-Mars film is another tale of survival, and like his first, "Arctic,"...
- Netflix's space survival drama from the creative duo behind Arctic.
- The Best Sci Fi Movies on Netflix
- Verdict
By Robert Daniels
Updated: Nov 4, 2022 12:18 am
Posted: Apr 22, 2021 7:01 am
Stowaway is now available on Netflix.
Every space narrative, by nature, is a survivalist film. When the nearest help is millions of miles away, when any number of tiny knobs can spring haywire, and only the barest of materials separates you from the vacuum of space -- the possibility of your demise looms omnipresently.
The three-person crew of Hyperion’s Mars expedition knew those risks, of course. Both the morally assured medical researcher Zoe (Anna Kendrick) and the clear-eyed biologist David (Daniel Dae Kim) spent three years training and pitching their proposed research for this scientific mission. Their two-year trip also represents the third and final journey to Mars for their experienced commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette, sporting her natural Australian accent). On the other hand, there is a person who didn’t sign up for this responsibility. Hours after launching, Marina discovers a wounded passenger hidden in a cramped compartment. No one knows how he got there. They only know he’s injured, and his presence introduces a bevy of dangerous, unforeseen variables.
After playing the plucky a cappella leader of the Pitch Perfect franchise, Kendrick retrofits the same can-do attitude of that character to Zoe to realistic effect. Kim imbues David with a careful realist undergirding that in lesser hands would be confused with maliciousness. When David informs Michael of their inescapable circumstance, he delivers the news in an overtly calm voice. Sitting by a window with a view of space, welcoming reminders of Tony Stark in Endgame, Michael receives the soul-crushing information with an equally quiet poignancy. While her most emotional scenes arise from speaking to an unseen, inaudible Jim, located at mission control, Colette, in what amounts to a series of monologues, likewise steers away from any expected overacting.
Tantalizingly, there isn’t much space in this space film. The movie’s intensity stems from the ensuing claustrophobia. How Penna introduces space’s terrifying void into the narrative’s thrilling climax, is accomplished through a deceptively simple premise. To save Michael, Zoe and David must venture outside the craft, climb the tethers to another ship attached 450 meters away without damaging their vessel’s electronics or slipping away into space. Some parts of the tether are fully gravitized, while other sections give way to weightlessness. The VFX in Stowaway isn’t mind-blowing. They’re workmanlike and noticeable, particularly in the visually generic liftoff sequence. But the tether scene is a perfectly paced, heart-pounding piece of filmmaking holding similarities to Ad Astra, wherein the perilous openness of the cosmos, Hauschka’s unnerving score, and Morrison’s taut editing combine for frenzied fits of panic. The scene serves as a further example of the nimbleness Penna and Morrison have for these types of narratives.
A tidy ensemble featuring strong performances from Toni Colette, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, and relative newcomer Shamier Anderson buoys Joe Penna’s survivalist space flick. Stowaway spends nearly two hours ratcheting the pressure on a crew left with an impossible decision only for the edge-of-your-seat fear to lull during the film’s waning min...
- Robert Daniels
Apr 22, 2021 · Stowaway: Directed by Joe Penna. With Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson, Toni Collette. A three-person crew on a mission to Mars faces an impossible choice when an unplanned passenger jeopardizes the lives of everyone on board.
- (53K)
- Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
- Joe Penna
- 2021-04-22
Apr 22, 2021 · “Stowaway,” directed by Joe Penna, pushes a crew of space explorers to moral and physical extremes when an unexpected passenger accidentally compromises their oxygen supply.
Apr 23, 2021 · For new Netflix survival drama Stowaway, director Joe Penna, reteams with his writing partner (and editor) Ryan Morrison, in a spiritual successor to their first film, Arctic. That film, starring Mads Mikkelsen as a near lone survivor in the frozen wastes, demonstrated the talent Penna and Morrison have for extracting drama from bare-bones ...
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