Given the fanfare surrounding Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos’ recent forays into space, “Settlers” feels especially timely. Writer-director Wyatt Rockefeller uses his debut film to anticipate the next step after space travel, raising questions about both human sustainability and ownership.
In some ways, the film also calls to mind the current culture wars revolving around America's origins, with an underlying message about not repeating history.
Unlike Matt Damon’s abandoned scientist in "The Martian," Reza (Jonny Lee Miller) and Ilsa and their daughter Remmy have presumably chosen to dwell in the vast wasteland of the red planet. For nine-year-old Remmy, Earth is merely an idea, a place from which her parents hail. Mars is the only reality she has known, and from the outside looking in, it appears bleak.
Rather than over-the-top echoes of danger, there’s a natural unease to “Settlers” that comes from its stark, dystopian what-if scenarios.
In some ways, the film also calls to mind the current culture wars revolving around America's origins, with an underlying message about not repeating history.
Unlike Matt Damon’s abandoned scientist in "The Martian," Reza (Jonny Lee Miller) and Ilsa and their daughter Remmy have presumably chosen to dwell in the vast wasteland of the red planet. For nine-year-old Remmy, Earth is merely an idea, a place from which her parents hail. Mars is the only reality she has known, and from the outside looking in, it appears bleak.
Rather than over-the-top echoes of danger, there’s a natural unease to “Settlers” that comes from its stark, dystopian what-if scenarios.
- 7/22/2021
- by Ronda Racha Penrice
- The Wrap
If there’s life on Mars, there must also be death on Mars: That’s the plainest takeaway from “Settlers,” a stark, scorched, occasionally jolting sci-fi slow burn in which relocating to the red planet can’t save humanity from its basest instincts. Tracing the tumultuous household dynamics of four ex-earthlings over the course of a decade, as they attempt to forge a new life on a hostile surface, Wyatt Rockefeller’s polished, confident debut feature succeeds most vividly as a feat of minimalist world-building — constructing an overwhelmingly desolate Martian farmstead in South Africa’s Namaqualand desert, in which avenues of exploration feel infinite, and escape impossible. Rockefeller’s story world might indeed be more richly imagined than his story, which tends to idle after a tensely wound opening. Still, a fine, surprising ensemble lends human heft to this Tribeca premiere, which could springboard its writer-director to more lavish visions.
- 6/26/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
It’s always extra frustrating when a biopic falls short, especially if its subject is as compelling as the relationship between two brilliant iconoclasts like Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West.
It’s a shame, too, that many in the audience will get their introduction to Sackville-West via “Vita and Virginia.” In reality, she was an extraordinarily complicated, trailblazing bisexual writer who lived on her own terms regardless of the price to herself or others in her orbit. Here, she comes across as a spoiled and superficial narcissist who is merely, as one character intones amid the film’s plethora of plummy accents, “rahthah hard work.”
As played by Gemma Arterton (also an executive producer), Vita is pure seductress: gorgeous and tempestuous and shockingly modern even by the most decadent standards of 1927. She’s irresistible, in other words, for the contemplative, always-questing Virginia. But Virginia’s Bloomsbury set isn’t as easily swayed.
It’s a shame, too, that many in the audience will get their introduction to Sackville-West via “Vita and Virginia.” In reality, she was an extraordinarily complicated, trailblazing bisexual writer who lived on her own terms regardless of the price to herself or others in her orbit. Here, she comes across as a spoiled and superficial narcissist who is merely, as one character intones amid the film’s plethora of plummy accents, “rahthah hard work.”
As played by Gemma Arterton (also an executive producer), Vita is pure seductress: gorgeous and tempestuous and shockingly modern even by the most decadent standards of 1927. She’s irresistible, in other words, for the contemplative, always-questing Virginia. But Virginia’s Bloomsbury set isn’t as easily swayed.
- 8/22/2019
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.