Rubikon review: a sci-fi movie that leaves its morality play stranded in orbit

The stakes don’t get bigger and the canvas doesn’t get smaller. Rubycon, In a sci-fi drama about the fate of the Earth, boarded an orbiting space station. There, a few characters (only three in most of the length of the movie) stare through the window into a world suffocated by a toxic fog. They feel they should go underwater and try to save humanity, but they don’t know if they can take themselves out of the safety of the orbiting cocoons.

In other words, this is a COVID movie. RubyconThe small cast and minimal production is probably more related to its budget and origin (mostly English, but made in Austria) than when it was made. And his first director, Reni Lorich, wrote the film before the pandemic, keeping in mind topics such as global climate change and the European migrant crisis. But when she was filming during the second wave of coronavirus, the similarities were unavoidable for her and her actors and are now unavoidable for viewers.

At the emotional level, Rubycon Is a movie about how isolation fosters the attitude of the island, and how easily the horizon shrinks, even if you can see the curvature of the earth through the bedroom window. We can all be involved. But at the moral level, this is a moral play disguised as a thriller in a contained pressure cooker. It is to weigh your responsibilities to yourself and your family against your responsibilities to society. The problem is that the metaphor is so exaggerated that it doesn’t make any sense at all, with the future of mankind on one side of the scale and the three tin cans on the other.

Set in 2056, the film collapsed to the point where air quality deteriorated and the upper layers of society lived in climate-controlled geodomes, and the country was dissolved and replaced by business entities. Hannah Wagner (Julia Franzrichter), a special operations soldier at one of these companies, is a large, well-equipped company with a small crew, developed by scientist Dimitri Krylow (Mark Ivanir). A symbiotic system for algae culture that is located at the space station Rubicon and can provide an unlimited supply of breathable air. Accompanied by Hannah is chemist and environmental activist Gavin Abbott (George Blagden), whose wealthy parents regarded space as a safe haven and arranged a gig at Rubycon.

At the beginning of the movie, something happened to Hannah and Gavin’s Shuttlecraft AI navigation system, and there was no obvious reason other than demonstrating both Hannah’s military power and Sanfloyd, and for Lorich’s sure reason, with the station. Must be manually docked. Hand as a director with a suspense set piece. Several times in the film, she shows that by using preliminary edits and letting the actors and sound design work hard, you can build and release tensions with flashy economics. At these moments, Rubycon It’s the best of the fleeting.

As a drama, this movie is not so certain. In the early stages, the script doesn’t seem to go anywhere in a hurry. Lorich and her co-writer Jessica Lind couldn’t take the time to properly set the character, the world, the plot, and the stakes. All the international casts with subtitles, occasionally immersed in German and Russian, are out at sea, leaving the audience confused about the details. When half of the crew (including Dimitri’s son) leaves the station, the situation calms down a bit and Lorich can focus on the remaining three, Hannah, Gavin and Dimitri.

Photo: Philipp Brozsek / IFC Midnight

The situation on Earth is particularly unclear. Obviously things are miserable there, but at some point they suddenly and catastrophically worsen as the boiling clouds of poison races around the Earth seem to eliminate all human life. increase. Exactly when and why this happens, and how it differs from previous situations, viewers need to stitch together from quiet, extraordinary reaction shots and vaguely waving commentary snatches. As the cataclysm progresses, it is strangely muted — although the Earth’s visuals, which change from cloud-striped blue to glowing brown, have distant power.

In parallel with this, Lorich builds another effective visual clue as the panel of bright green algae that airs the Rubicon crew begins to clump and darken. The reason is unexpected, but sadly it shows that Lorich couldn’t figure out the credibility of the story because of the message.

While algae culture is clearly of decisive value for human survival on Earth, Lorich’s plans need to discuss whether the character should fly algae. Environmentalist Gavin believes that should be the case. Scientist Dimitri has been given an unnatural reason to want to continue riding Rubycon. Hannah, a practical operative, is caught in the middle.

With all three actors liking enough, Richter brings devoted and witty strength to Hannah’s envisioned dilemma. But it never looks like a real moral question. As a result, some of Hannah’s choices are true. Lorich works hard to tilt the scale, but she gives Hannah a strong personal incentive to stay, evoking the ghosts of corporate greed and coldness on the surface, but she balances them. Can’t succeed. On the one hand, a selfish, hollow ghostly being as a trio of traces orbiting the graveyard of mankind. On the other hand, attempts to save the future of mankind, no matter how dangerous or morally compromised, are irrelevant. I don’t want to hesitate in their way.

To get out of this fantastic moral maze, Laurich spawns two separate Deus ex machina, but neither feels like earning. RubyconWhile that sincere intention continues to spin futilely in space, the plot has crashed and is looking for a way to retreat.

Rubycon It will debut on July 1st with the theater on demand.