Review: Sputnik


When astronaut Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov) crash lands back on Earth after an alien encounter in space, a psychologist Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina) is called to assess him but she's not given all the information at first and is horrified to find out what's actually going on.

It feels like there's been a ton of space movies lately, particularly ones that deal with strange things happening in space. This is no different, and it will garner a lot of comparisons to Arrival due to Tatyana's character coming on board, but Sputnik is easily the best space movie I've seen since Arrival. 

While it's advertised as a horror movie, it's definitely more of a drama with horror elements. Think Se7en. There's a few gruesome moments but the majority of the film is Tatyana trying to solve the mystery on what to do with Konstantin. It's the height of the Cold War, her male colleague isn't happy with her presence, and she was already dealing with something pretty life changing regarding her job already. Tatyana has her shit together, and it's remarkable she mostly keeps it that way given what's thrown at her.

There were a few times I thought the choices some of the characters made were kind of stupid, but I could also find reasons to justify that stupidity given what they were working with.  I was just so pleasantly surprised with all of this. The actors were great, it was suspenseful, the score was really loud and booming which should contradict what's happening on screen but strangely worked. 

I'm happy I rented this. If you're interested in watching, I recommend not Googling it because photos of the ending and the film's bigger moments are everywhere. I went in fairly blind, having only seen a trailer once before, and that worked well for me.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B+

Memorable Quote: "I'm not coming for your job....or your Nobel Prize." - Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina) 

Comments

  1. I had heard a lot about this as I might check it out whenever I get the chance.

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  2. I'm really glad you liked this. I loved it and felt it fell under so many people's radar. I'm anxious to see it again.

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    Replies
    1. It really did. I just happened to see it as a preview on a DVD I rented and that's when I remembered I had wanted to see it before. It would've honestly competed for my best list if I had seen it sooner.

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  3. Nice review! I managed to see this last year via screener, and have been wanting to rewatch it since. I totally agree about the similarities to Arrival with the characters and mix of sci-fi/drama or horror/drama.

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    Replies
    1. This film is flying so under the radar, I hope it finds a following on DVD, I think a lot of people will like it

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