Netflix's latest star studded sci-fi movie is one of its strangest yet

Adam Sandler is known for his crass comedies and amazing performances in dramas. Netflix’s Spaceman belongs firmly to the latter camp.

It’s heading to Netflix on March 1, but has picked up a bunch of great critic reviews after a limited cinematic run as part of the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.

There are no gems or bar mitzvahs involved in Spaceman, though, as it’s a sci-fi drama that sees Sandler at his most serious.

He plays Jakub, an astronaut on a long space mission who realises his marriage may be over, while light years away from home.

Yep, this is not your average sci-fi epic. Carey Mulligan plays Lena, Jakub’s wife. And Jakub meets a strange spider creature out in space, played by Paul Dano, who tries to help him get to the bottom of what went wrong.

It’s based on a novel by Jaroslav Kalfař.

“Spaceman began as a short story that I wrote in my last year of college,” says Kalfař. “Originally, it was just a punch line about an American astronaut who was stranded in orbit when he received a call from his wife asking for a divorce.

Spaceman is directed by Johan Renck, a well-regarded music video director who also worked on episodes of TV shows Chernobyl and Breaking Bad.

Spaceman reviews

“It’s a tale about love, loneliness and connection that is by turns weird, introspective, and beautiful,” says Empire’s 4-star review. “Come for the wise alien spider, stay for Adam Sandler at his sombre best in this strange, heartfelt sci-fi drama.”

This isn’t one of those trashy Sandler comedies. But this isn’t an uncut gems, either.

The Wrap calls it a “conversation-starting meditation on the human condition made as a piece of art for audiences to experience rather than being a film made with an audience in mind.”

Pretty deep, right? It currently sits at 65% at Rotten Tomatoes, so not all the reviewers were quite as persuaded by Spaceman.

Others have called it a bit slight or slow, but we’ll take it over The Do Over any day. Spaceman also sits at 92% for its audience rating. Still, we wouldn’t put too much faith in the audience numbers until March 1, when Spaceman lands on Netflix.