Spaceship Earth
Neon | Release Date (Streaming): May 8, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzMay 8, 2020
As cinema, it's not trying to reinvent any wheels. But it's an impressive example of basic storytelling techniques refined for maximum impact, each element reinforcing and feeding off every other element, as in the enclosed ecosystem that it depicts. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMay 7, 2020
One way to approach Spaceship Earth, Matt Wolf’s layered, absorbing and sympathetic new documentary, is as a madly inventive primer on responsible dystopian-hermetic living. But the film — which is being shown at drive-in theaters, in pop-up cityscape projections and on multiple streaming platforms — would make for fascinating viewing under any circumstances. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMay 7, 2020
There are some frustrating gaps, but only because Wolf has so much to cram in. The second round of biospherians are completely erased, while the sudden appearance of Steve Bannon (yes, that Steve Bannon) poses more questions than it answers. Yet even those dead-ends cannot overcome the fascinating story of compromised idealism and hardheaded optimism that underlies it all. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 6, 2020
Suffice it to say that, in addition to celebrating the energy, enterprise and idealism of America’s postwar generation, Spaceship Earth provides a sobering primer in how some dreams die, and others are strangled mercilessly in their cribs. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMay 6, 2020
A documentary as inspiring as it is flat-out bizarre. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 8, 2020
The Biosphere 2 project now looks like reality TV, or maybe a conceptual art happening. Its quixotic extravagance is rather amazing. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlan NgMay 9, 2020
If you want to hear the story of dreamers fulfilling their outlandish dreams, this is the film. Read full review
80
Screen RantHannah HoolihanMay 7, 2020
Spaceship Earth shines a light on the charismatic people behind Biosphere 2 but emphasizes the importance of climate change, especially today. Read full review
80
CNNBrian LowryMay 7, 2020
What Spaceship Earth makes clear is that before booking a ticket, the devil is in the details. Read full review
75
Original-CinKaren GordonMay 7, 2020
The film looks at so many things at once, that in some ways it lacks depth or resolution. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleMay 7, 2020
Spaceship Earth, with a glowing score by Owen Pallett, doesn’t cast judgment on most of its subjects. It’s content to go along for the ride, marveling at all the surrealism. You’d say the story was out of this world if it wasn’t so much of it. Read full review
75
The PlaylistChris BarsantiMay 7, 2020
Spaceship Earth is a highly watchable document from a curious cultural convergence in which avant-garde “Star Trek” utopianism met the glare of the mainstream. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMay 6, 2020
After watching Spaceship Earth, which was completed before the coronavirus pandemic, one can’t help but think about the current experiment conducted by Biosphere 1. As smog clears across urban landscapes due to stay-at-home orders, the vision — and the warnings — laid out by Biosphere 2 remain relevant. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 5, 2020
The film offers a refuge of idealism and intellectuality in an age that’s actively hostile to both of those qualities. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 5, 2020
Spaceship Earth touches down as a grounded and even clinical analysis of our natural skepticism towards dreamers — of how our hope can sour into hostility as soon as it loses an iota of its shine. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 23, 2020
Here is THE must-see documentary for a world living under quarantine. Spaceship Earth is about can-do cooperation, art and science coalescing, about “learning by doing” and recognizing that “small groups of people are the engines of change.” Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearMay 11, 2020
We may never see the likes of something like this again, even as climate change makes the impetus behind Biosphere 2 that much more urgent. But if Spaceship Earth proves nothing else, it left behind some one hell of a stranger-than fiction yarn. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 8, 2020
Viewed under quarantine, Spaceship Earth has a visceral kick. Read full review
69
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganMay 28, 2020
Spaceship Earth provides us with a keepsake of a moment forgotten by collective memory after the project it depicts was coopted by others to become a resource for climate denial. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 8, 2020
It's a fascinating story, this clash of 1960s idealism with the cold realities of modern science, though not one that director Matt Wolf (Wild Combination: A Story of Arthur Russell) is fully able to bite off and chew in Spaceship Earth, his fitfully enthralling but frustratingly incomplete documentary. Read full review
60
CineVueChristopher MachellJul 13, 2020
Spaceship Earth deftly captures the sincere wonder and optimism of those who believed in the project. There’s simply no denying the sheer ambition of the damn thing, let alone that they more or less pulled it off. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicWeldon B. JohnsonMay 7, 2020
Spaceship Earth is an interesting look at the origins of one Arizona’s most interesting tourist attractions. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMay 7, 2020
If you think quarantine life is tough, just wait until you see what happens in a biosphere. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeMay 7, 2020
Like the structure at its centre, Spaceship Earth is a smart concept that never really takes off. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 8, 2020
Spaceship Earth mostly skims over both the findings and the failings, and neglects a lot of the logistics—understandable omissions for a two-hour documentary more interested, perhaps, in the social ramifications of those two years behind glass. Not that it totally illuminates that aspect either. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergMay 7, 2020
Like the project itself, Spaceship Earth winds up caught in the gulf between rigor and showmanship. As entertaining as it can be, it is also disappointingly deferential to its subjects — the work of a filmmaker in thrall to characters who have welcomed him inside the bubble. Read full review
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