Review of Space Station 76 (2014) by Josh M — 14 Nov 2014

This film lets you know what it's going to be like with the opening song and if you think that's a bit over the top or cheesy then get off the spaceship now. Space Station 76 is an oddball love letter to the past with dry, witty humor and some genuinely touching moments.

I wasn't born anywhere close to the 70s but from what I've seen of films from that time this certainly feels like it came from back then. The style of the film is amazing and it is beautiful to look at, especially the station, as it, again, looks like it came from a 70s film. The soundtrack is fantastic and delightfully retro, it may only be a few tracks and mostly taken from the same thing but it is memorable and just a joy to listen to, it fits right in. Even the font for the film is perfect and is totally 70s.

I have a feeling that if you don't have some sort of an idea of what the film is before you watch it, or pay attention to the opening line, that you're going to be very disappointed. The film is just about people's relationships on a spaceship and if you don't know that or don't pay attention to that opening line you're probably going to be bored or waiting for something to happen like a space battle or something. It's a slow moving character drama that changes tone quite often and is unapologetic about it.

I'll admit that it isn't what I thought it'd be as I thought it'd just about the three that you see on the cover but I'm not disappointed. At the start its just one scene followed by another and they all seem disconnected making us think, 'what was the point', but by the end, in a rather explosive ending, they all fit together and a surprisingly moving picture is told. Like I said, the tone is all over the place, one minute you'll be laughing at some incredibly dark humor and the next you'll feel like you want to cry, with a few non sequiturs thrown in and it works because that is what life is like, unpredictable, things change on a dime but the film never looses its heart. There's also a lot of humor to be had about smoking, given how many people do it and some conversations that are had about it. We don't know much about Earth but it works in the films favor.

The cast of the film is great and they all remain deadpan as the scenarios around them are clearly whacky. Patrick Wilson is great in one of his most bizarre roles to date, the way he delivers his lines is brilliant and he manages to get a lot of laughs out of pretty much anything he does. It's funny and sad to see how the ship keeps thwarting his attempts at trying to do something to himself. I also appreciate the way he was written, in a film that deals with relationships it's nice to see one that's different from all the rest and besides the comedy, his character is quite tragic and it's really easy to feel for him. There is also a cameo in here and when he's shown it feels like he's just at home. It might sound bad to say that most of the humor comes from robots but they are written in the perfect way to respond to what the human characters say just like you'd imagine a robot would. Liv Tyler and Matt Bomer do great jobs and have a really great connection in the film.

The relationships and the troubles the characters are going through aren't simple either, the relationships aren't all sex based and the troubles aren't because they're in space. Most of the relationships are characters just being friends and getting accustomed to where they are living and the problems range from alcoholism to a control freak to someone not being able to have a baby to someone having to keep quiet about who they are or else they'll loose their job and it's all quite varied and for an hour and half a lot gets developed. The subplot involving gerbils is especially moving, especially how it ends. Just like life, not everything gets a big payoff, some things end quietly, some things end on screen and some don't end at all (which is infuriating because one of the characters sleeps around). This spaceship has been around long before we arrive and will continue to do so long after we leave, unless an asteroid hits it.

Perhaps I'm looking too deep into it but the fact that one of the things in the film said 'this will result in death' I couldn't quite work out what the point of all that was and I think I missed something, it just seemed really cruel but maybe it's supposed to mean something. As well as the constant shots of the asteroids colliding, perhaps that is supposed to symbolise something going wrong. One thing I didn't understand was how one character found out something about Wilson's character at the end, I don't know how she learnt that fact, maybe she just put two and two together. And that naked woman out the window threw me right off.

It might be a spoof of the 1970s view of the future but it isn't lazy or filled with obvious humor, it's a smartly assembled, quietly moving dramedy filled with good characters and relationships that have a lot of depth that is all directed with a steady hand by Plotnick that just so happens to have 1970s space as its backdrop. Maybe I have missed the point or interpreted it wrong but this is what I got out of it. It says it was based on a stage play and I can't find anything about it so maybe it was wasn't produced but anyway it's a great film and as many others are calling it, a gem, and it really is. I'd like to see more of these characters but I'm happy leaving it as is.You might argue that it could have done more with the setting but then that would ruin what it is. You might say it is pointless after you see it but take a step back, look at it for what it is and it might all fall into place. I'm really happy I saw it and I'll be returning to Space Station 76 time and time again.