80
Winocour does brilliant work at enlarging the minute details that define the way the wind is blowing in this relationship.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
It is that kind of “inside the life of an astronaut” angle that keeps the film reasonably engaging, even if you don’t care too much about the characters.
58
A film that takes so much care to spend time on a different perspective—on the woman juggling ambition and love without sacrifice—feels vital. At the same time, during the restrained and contemplative journey that precedes liftoff, “Proxima” often feels like it is waiting for a more devastating threat – you can do all the preparation in the world, and it still won’t prevent the fallout of the big leap when it happens.
100
Screen Daily by Fionnuala Halligan
A significant, ambitious and entirely impressive film by a dazzling young French director in full command of her ship.
90
An unostentatious but quietly dazzling meditation on womanhood in the largely patriarchal space race, Alice Winocour’s highly satisfying third feature outdoes many more lavish Hollywood efforts in evoking the otherworldly emotional disconnect that comes with space travel, all without leaving terra firma for the vast bulk of its running time.
50
The film falls back on a reductive rumination on the balance between maternal obligation and career aspiration.
75
The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak
This is a very quiet and contemplative film driven by characters above plot.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
This superbly crafted yet intimate family drama is so realistic in terms of its setting and technical specificity, it sometimes feels like a documentary. ... It’s perhaps a tad deliberate in spots, hitting its central theme too heavily on the nose, but Proxima pulls off an impressive balancing act between the personal and the astronomical.