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Netflix’s Spaceman is slow, sad sci-fi — with a lovable space spider

A strangely compelling exploration of loneliness.

The alien in the Netflix film Spaceman is one recent example: a giant spider with squirming tentacles, a disturbingly human mouth, the calming voice of Paul Dano, and the ability to experience time nonlinearly. Jakub has few people to talk to — his supervisor Peter (Kunal Nayyar) is always in his ear to keep things on track, and he’s able to video chat with his wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan) thanks to a device that looks like an ’80s arcade cabinet — but he’s physically isolated. It’s a little bit Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, except Hanus takes on something of a therapist role: from his detached perspective, he’s able to use details from Jakub’s life to figure out how and why things went the way they did and then be brutally honest about his findings.

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