‘Proxima’: Film Review
Back in October a smallish film called “Lucy in the Sky,” starring Natalie Portman as a post-mission astronaut struggling to accept the limitations of life on earth, opened and closed in short order. It was neither as bad as its dismal reviews and mortifying box office would have you believe, nor as good as you’d hope for from any of the talent involved. Most of all, however, it felt outplayed the moment it appeared, premiering as it did in Toronto alongside “Proxima.” An unostentatious but quietly dazzling meditation on womanhood in the largely patriarchal space race, Alice Winocour’s highly satisfying third feature outdoes many more lavish Hollywood efforts in evoking the otherworldly emotional disconnect that comes with space travel, all without leaving terra firma for the vast bulk of its running time.Despite enthusiastic initial reviews on the festival circuit — and a special mention from Toronto’s Platform ...