Stowaway

Movie Name: Stowaway
Year of Release: 2021
Director: Joe Penna
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
Watch it on Netflix

Synopsis and Review

After his feature directorial debut with "Arctic", Brazilian director Joe Penna is back, this time around with a claustrophobic sci-fi narrative which Netflix has purchased and is distributing. The narrative focuses on a small crew of three, who are on a vessel with their destination being Mars. The crew consists of Commander Marina Barnett, biologist David Kim and medical researcher Zoe Levenson. Shortly after taking off, Marina discovers an accidental stowaway by the name of Michael Adams. While in the process of helping him, a device that scrubs carbon dioxide from the air is destroyed. They soon realize that without that device they will need to figure something else out, otherwise they won't be able to make it to Mars. While David is able to work with algae to generate additional oxygen, it's still not enough for all of them. They eventually have to rely on a riskier plan which includes recovering liquid oxygen that is stored in an upper stage rocket. Zoe and David set out to accomplish the plan, however as they're nearing completion, they have to get back to the ship as a high-energy solar flare is coming their way and it may prove itself fatal to them due to lethal radiation. 

It's inevitable that someone watching this film will think of how much Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" has influenced this type of sci-fi narrative, both from a storytelling perspective, but also from a stylistic and formal perspective. Joe Penna is obviously well aware of that, and has carved out a narrative that is quite straightforward in what it sets out to do. The group of characters is briefly introduced and succinctly contextualized, before the catalyst for the problem that puts all of them in danger is presented. While the aspect of the the additional passenger has been explored before, one has only to remember Ridley Scott's "Alien", in this case Michael is humanized and the group tries to collectively overcome the challenge he has caused. This film harbors echoes from Cuaron's "Gravity", but also from Danny Boyle's "Sunshine", however in this case the characters are simply not as compellingly established as they were on those films. It's a film that lives from the interactions between its lead actors, all of whom solidly but also generically define their characters (without much depth to it), with apt support from the Production Design team and Costume Design team, both of which really make this universe that much more grounded. 

While the outcome of the narrative isn't surprising by any means, the director and his team still manage to make the third chapter of the film watchable and fairly gripping. Toni Collette and Anna Kendrick are fantastic as usual, with good support from Shamier Anderson and Daniel Dae Kim. The cinematography from Klemens Becker is solid, as is the production design from Marco Bittner Rosser. While not exactly memorable, it's still worth watching.