Female Film Critics 24/375
Alice Winocour is entirely grounded in all senses of the word: the mundanity of the rigor of the astronaut training is on the same par with the tedium of the sexism Sarah faces, especially from Mike Shannon (Matt Dillon), the American commander of the international mission. But just because it’s all routine doesn’t mean it’s not engrossing in its own quiet way.
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Alice Winocour’s drama Proxima may be about a woman who’s getting ready to head to space, but it’s the very earthly ties that bind us to this planet — and to each other — that are at the heart of this thoughtful film. Starring Eva Green as French astronaut Sarah Loreau, Proxima explores the intersection of professional ambition and motherhood in a way that will ring true for anyone who’s ever had to balance personal and professional demands.
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Eva Green gives an absolutely stellar performance in Alice Winocour’s exceptional film. Both Green and Winocour wear Proxima‘s feminist credentials lightly, however. Neither screenplay nor performance act as soapbox; they don’t need to. The message is woven into the fabric of the film, which benefits from some beautiful, textural cinematography from Georges Lechaptois whose camera often rests on intimate moments. That the film’s power lies in these small interactions is indicative of a writer/director at the top of her game.
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The French sci-fi drama Proxima, is among the several notable space-travel features that have blasted off in this decade. But this is the first to have a female in the director’s chair. Namely, Alice Winocour, who uses down to earth human emotion and family issues for the film’s rocket fuel.
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Work-life balance for parents, and the ebbs and flows of maternal ties specifically, aren’t a new topic — in general or in cinema. But films primarily about female astronauts, rather than just embedding a woman as part of a larger team, are still noticeably rare. So are movies that examine the professional and personal minutiae complicating a woman and mother’s trip beyond the earth.
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