Film Review: Lost in Starlight

 This Korean animated film on Netflix straddles rom-com and space adventure

Lost in Starlight begins on Mars, with an astronaut in a busy, vibrant housing facility for the team members recording a message to her daughter back on Earth. On the wall of her bunk, she has a small crayon drawing of an astronaut that her daughter made for her, and a vinyl record hanging up. But during the recording, a tremor shatters the entire facility, collapsing it on all of the astronauts inside, killing the entire crew.

Fast-forward some 25 years, and we meet the now-grown daughter who was to receive that message -- Nan-young. Despite losing her mom in that tragedy on Mars, Nan-young has pursued a career at NASA, as well, and she plans on being a member of the crew that will make humanity's first return voyage to the Red Planet since her mom and the others were lost. But her supervisors are worried about her -- not because she seems to emotional, but because she doesn't seem emotional enough.NASA removes her from the mission, believing that she never fully processed the loss of her mother, and that the psychological effects of arriving on Mars might prove overwhelming or unpredictable.

Upset by losing her spot on the team, Nan-young begins going through some of her mother's things, and finds an old, broken record player that she had decorated with crayon drawings as a child. She tries to find a repair shop that can tackle the record player, but has no luck until she literally bumps into Jay as she's going into a store and he's coming out. The record player falls to the ground, and Jay says he repairs machines like that. Some coincidence.

As Nan-young and Jay begin spending more time together, she opens up to him about how much she loves music, and one song in particular really helped get her through the long nights of studying in college. But she got the song off of a file-sharing site, and never knew who the artist was. She begins playing the song, and Jay confesses that he actually wrote the song with his old band, and he never knew anyone had heard it. Again, some coincidence.

As Nan-young continues her scientific work at NASA, she encourages Jay to get back with his old band and explore writing and performing again. He's reluctant to do so, but does reconnect with his old band mates, and agrees to play guitar live. Then suddenly, Nan-young makes a breakthrough involving plant-life on Mars, and earns a spot back on the crew. The public announcement goes out before she can tell Jay, and his feelings are hurt, leading to a rift before the mission.

Once the Mars mission begins, the film begins intercutting between their two narratives. Nan-young has to do a reconnaissance mission on the surface, and a windstorm comes up, seeparating her from the rest of the crew, shorting out her coms, and threatening her oxygen supply. Back on Earth, Jay has agreed to play and sing with the band at a festival date, and since he hasn't sung on stage in years, he's really nervous.So, one character is literally fighting for her life on an alien planet, and the other...has stage fright. 

This is where the movie lost me. The stacking up of coincidences early in the film was a little clunky, but I could get over it. For a good portion of the movie, it does play much more like a romantic comedy with a bit of sci-fi flavor on the periphery, so if it hewed a little more closely to rom-com meet-cute conventions, it didn't feel out of place. And the movie does a couple interesting things with the idea of the bifurcation of self in the face of past trauma, and finding ways out of that. But the climactic juxtaposition of a literal life-or-death, high-drama space adventure vs. taking a deep breath and singing a song in front of what looks to be about 100 people...it just didn't track for me.

In the end, I found myself reminded of movies that plowed similar ground, but which I enjoyed much more. Movies like The Martian or Your Name, where in the former dealt with survival on Mars and the latter with romantic partners trying to communicate across impossible distances, felt like they were big inspirations for a lot of the action of the film, and though I was reminded of them, Lost in Starlight never resonated with me the way those films did. Even First Man, about Neil Armstrong trying to compartmentalize his child's death while embarking on the moon mission, felt a little more emotionally impactful while dealing with very similar material.

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Nerds coefficient: 6/10

Posted by Vance K - resident cult-film reviewer and co-founder of nerds of a feather, flock together 

Holiday Gift Guide: Books

Welcome to our annual Holiday Gift Guide, where the flock takes a break from our usual schedule to consider all the different things that the nerds in your life might appreciate for the holiday season this year. Today we'll talk about books and comics, with posts throughout the week on games, collectibles, movies and more.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Gift Edition) [Algonquin] (recommended by Joe)

Originally published in 2016, The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill is a Newbery Medal winning novel and it is an absolute delight (my review). I almost can't wait for my children to grow just old enough for me to read them this beautiful novel. Algonquin has recently published a new Gift Edition with a prequel story, new illustrations and a map. It's just lovely.

Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight [Subterranean Press] (recommended by Adri)
Aliette de Bodard is, thus far, the only author to reach the ballot for the Best Series Hugo with a series entirely developed in short fiction, for her Xuya universe of mindships, filial piety and Vietnamese culture in a far future spacefaring world (at least in the more recent stories - there is an entire earth-based mythology for Xuya as well). This collection brings together a range of Xuya tales, along with a couple of pieces - including an original new novella - from the Dominion of the Fallen world, featuring fallen angels and dragon gods in a post-apocalyptic Paris and explored in the trilogy starting with House of Shattered Wings.

Because this is a Subterranean Press book, it's a beautiful object, coming in a signed and numbered edition with a cover illustration by Maurizio Manzieri which really brings the aesthetics of Xuya to life. There still aren't many opportunities to pick up printed editions of the Xuya stories, and this selection would look gorgeous on any shelf, to dive into when it next makes an appearance on the Best Series ballot.

Dune: Deluxe edition [Ace] (recommended by Paul)
In November 2020, there will be a new screen version of Dune for the first time in nearly 20 years. If you have been waiting for a chance to finally read Dune in preparation for this movie release, have I got an edition for you. While the Folio Society version may be rather out of reach for a lot of buyers price wise, there is a new version of at a much more reasonable price point for readers both old and new to it: I present to you the deluxe version of Dune from Ace.

It’s a beautiful hardcover edition of one of my heart books, which I previously discussed here back in October. It has beautiful end papers, dust jacket, excellent binding, and a new and much clearer map of Arrakis than previous versions of Dune use. Readers and lovers of the novel can get a lasting and beautiful edition of the book. Readers who are new to the book can get a copy of the book in preparation for seeing the movie in an excellent edition that works for readers. Dune is a novel that really works best as a book (audio versions having real issues with its omniscient point of view) and this edition leans into that, using typography and layout to help make it clear who is speaking, thinking, and acting: no mean concession in this complex, complicated and wonderful book.

Zach-Like (recommended by Brian)
Reading Zach-Like by Zach Barth, you’re going to learn two things: Zachtronics isn’t a one-man affair, and the Zachtronics creative process creates a lot of cast-offs. If you’re not familiar with Zachtronics games, they make mostly puzzle programming games, the most popular being SpaceChem and Opus Magnum. They also, arguably, inspired Minecraft with a very early game called Infiniminer. Zach-Like shares some of the stories, diagrams, trials of these games, the rest of their published catalog, and lots of unpublished games as well. It’s a fascinating look at indie game development from a fairly niche studio that doesn’t necessarily want to fit in a niche.

Zach-Like is available through Steam in PDF form, and occasionally gets reprinted via crowdfunding.

Battle Angel Alita Vol. 1 by Yukito Kishiro (Recommended by Mike)

My family and I were very pleasantly surprised by Alita: Battle Angel this year and it left me with additional questions about the world that Alita inhabited. Fortunately this entire series is available on ComiXology Unlimited and my son and I were able to read all nine volumes. The story centers around Alita, a cyborg who is found in the dump in the scrapyards beneath Zalem (one of the last great floating cities). It is a quest for her to find her identity and for her friends to make peace with their own personal demons associated with living in as a second class citizen with no hope of upward mobility. The action sequences in this book are phenomenal, but the world building and character development are where this series shines. It can be hyper-violent at times, but it never felt unnecessary or graphic. If you enjoyed the film or are looking for an interesting post-apocalyptic tale I suggest you check this title out.

The NASA Archives: 60 Years in Space (Recommended by Joe)
Covering 60 Years of the United States space program and including more than 400 photographs, this may be the coffee table book of all coffee table books for the space enthusiast who wants to see how it all came together. A collector's item.

Posted by: Adri, Nerds of a Feather co-editor, is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke. Find her on Twitter at @adrijjy.