The Midnight Sky (2020 ) <Netflix>
Latest Clooney film, getting a lot of push on Netflix recently. I'll start by saying I was bought in a bit more because Clooney looks a LOT like my stepfather with the facial hair....but my stepfather is bald, and very annoying (not quiet at all). Ok, film opens with a Clooney in his 60's at an outpost in the Artic Circle that is being evacuated. Passing comments is that he has to do daily transfusions for some unknown ailment or he'll die in days. Flashback to his 20's when he met a woman, she got pregnant and didn't tell him, he proclaims there are livable planets and many exploration missions are launched. Back to reality, he's doddering around alone for days when he discovers a small child left behind who won't talk. He takes care of her, trying to contact any returning space missions, as the global catastrophe (undefined) is spreading an making the world uninhabitable. It reaches his post, he grabs the girl and heads for Lake Hazen, a weather station further north. Aether is the lone returning space ship, which runs into it's own issues along the way. He makes contact, explains the situation, half the crew jettison to earth to be with their family while half remain on the ship to slingshot to a different space station in hopes of ... we don't know, it isn't really explained.
I never saw Gravity (2013) with Bullock that so many people said dragged forever, so I can't compare. However, this one drags, a lot. There's a bit of drama as he races with the child to Lake Hazen, and a bit of excitement and drama as Aether deals with it's space issues. But overall, there's a slow pace and dreary soundtrack to just bring you down overall. There are a few wrinkles to what I've laid out, mostly you kinda feel them coming and they aren't that poignant but I'm sure they were expected to be THE point of the film since it left you with a bit of a lame and depressing ending. The only real positive I'll give it is some special effects with the space ship's issues, and an effectively depressing end of the world as we know it (not exactly what I was looking for, just bought into the hype of something more significant and was left wanting). 4/10.
EDIT: Directed by Clooney. I should have known.