You would think by now NASA would have learned that solo missions always end in space madness, but in Mark Elijah Rosenberg’s directorial debut Approaching the Unknown, the space agency sends Mark Strong on a 270-day trip to Mars with no entertainment but a rowing machine. But this NASA is maybe not operating at maximum efficiency to begin with: Luke Wilson is running mission control. A very laid-back mission control: When things have clearly already gone off the rails, Wilson greets Strong with “Hey, buddy! I haven’t talked to you in a couple days,” like Jim Anchower.
It’s not clear from the trailer what the tone of the movie’s going to be—the score and editing suggest psychological horror, but the images are more in the 2001: A Space Odyssey vein. (And part of the voice-over—“This is why I came here. To give everything up for one moment of pure wonder,”—half-heartedly suggests the ending of The Great Gatsby.) But whether it’s set in a Space Dystopia, the Space Jazz Age, or the Space Dystopian Jazz Age, one thing is clear: When the film’s released to theaters and VOD on June 3, four days before the California primary, a lot of people are going to be in the mood to take a one-way trip to Mars. Approaching the Unknown should be just the ticket.
