movie review another earth

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, or perhaps… a second earth.

Now streaming on:

"Another Earth" is a film animated by one stunning image: A new planet four times the size of the moon appears in the sky of Earth. This startling apparition gives a deeper meaning to everything in the story, especially when it is discovered, that the planet is indeed, as the title promises, another Earth. Perhaps not a second Earth however, but the very same Earth, in another universe that has now become visible.

That would explain the curious lack of physical effects on two planets so close together. In some sense the two Earths don't share the same physical reality. In another sense, Earth 2 is right up there in the sky: so close that a corporation sponsors an essay contest, and the winner gets to be the first person to visit it. I confess that the essay contest was harder for me to believe than the second Earth itself.

But this intriguing film isn't concerned with plausibility. It has deeper questions to explore. It involves a bright young woman named Rhoda Williams ( Brit Marling ), who in the opening scene, has been accepted into the astrophysics program at MIT. To celebrate, she parties too hearty, and when she's driving home, she hears the news about Earth 2. Peering out her car window to search the sky, she crashes into another car, killing a mother and child and sending the father into a coma.

A few years pass. She's released from prison and learns that the father, a composer named John Burroughs ( William Mapother ), has emerged from his coma. Rhoda is devastated by the deaths she caused and wants to apologize or make amends or … what? She doesn't know. She presents herself at the shabby rural house where Burroughs lives as a depressed recluse and makes up a story about doing house cleaning.

Now we have a situation not unfamiliar in the movies, where two people slowly grow close while only one of them is aware of their deep connection. The strength of "Another Earth" is that it employs that story to a larger purpose; this is no less than a meditation on the infinite possible variations that a human life can take.

If she had not had too many beers. If she had been listening to a different radio station. If he had not been on the road in the wrong place at the wrong time. The fatal crash was the sum of an infinite series of "ifs," tracing back to if life had never evolved on Earth in the first place. In our lives, we surf the wave of chance.

What's impressive is how well this film joins its parts into a whole. The other Earth idea is left as a fantastical hook and wisely not considered scientifically, except of course in its role as the film's master image. The relationship between Rhoda and John is seen as fraught with danger. The actors occupy their characters convincingly. They make us care more than the plot really requires. Earth 2, always looming in the sky, encourages us to reflect on how arbitrary our destinies are. In one sense, nothing in our lives was necessary. In another sense, everything was inevitable.

There's a nice story behind this movie, involving the actress and co-writer Brit Marling. She worked in investment banking on Wall Street before becoming the writer and co-director of "Boxers and Ballerinas," a Cuban documentary that Mike Cahill made in 2004. They worked together on this film. It arrived unheralded at Sundance 2011 and won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize as well as the Special Jury Prize.

"Another Earth" was made on a low budget, and Cahill shot and edited it himself. I think it would have benefitted from more tripod work and less hand-held; a more classical approach would have suited this thoughtful material. But it's strong as it is, and Marling emerges as a gifted new talent. The movie is as thought-provoking, in a less profound way, than Tarkovsky's "Solaris," another film about a sort of parallel Earth.

In this one, when a scientist makes a call to Earth 2 and discovers she is speaking with herself… what do you suppose that can mean?

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Evil Does Not Exist

Glenn kenny.

Nothing Can't Be Undone by a HotPot

Simon abrams.

The Sympathizer

Nandini balial.

Star Wars -- Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Art College 1994

Mary & George

Cristina escobar, film credits.

Another Earth (2011)

Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, some sexuality, nudity and drug use

William Mapother as John

Brit Marling as Rhoda

Directed by

Mike Cahill
Brit Marling

Latest blog posts

Cannes 2024: Megalopolis, Bird, The Damned, Meeting with Pol Pot

Prime Video's Outer Range Opens Up in a Hole New Way in Season 2

The Ebert Fellows Go to Ebertfest 2024

Cannes 2024 Video #2: The Festival Takes Off

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Link to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
The Fall Guy Link to The Fall Guy
The Last Stop in Yuma County Link to The Last Stop in Yuma County

New TV Tonight

Interview With the Vampire: Season 2
Spacey Unmasked: Season 1
Outer Range: Season 2
After the Flood: Season 1
The Killing Kind: Season 1
Bridgerton: Season 3
The Big Cigar: Season 1
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Season 11.1
Harry Wild: Season 3
RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars: Season 9

Another Earth Reviews

The film spoils a compelling idea by treating the subject like a hypothetical, instead of a device that brings the protagonist’s world crashing down.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 6, 2023

Another Earth is multifaceted and deeply layered, its nuanced performances and examination of alternate possibilities providing viewers with a unique viewing experience.

Full Review | Feb 20, 2021

Another Earth is a magnificently visionary film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 2, 2020

Takes and intriguing premise and strong cast and does little with them.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 11, 2020

Here we have a quiet and sometimes surprising drama, which is something you can rarely say about a modern sf movie...

Full Review | Mar 6, 2020

All believably rendered with great economy.

Full Review | Feb 28, 2020

There are small particles you might see and recognize (even one or two that might stick to you), but as a whole, Another Earth is nothing memorable, special, or interesting.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Feb 13, 2020

[I]ts two appealing stars, especially the intelligent, ethereal [Brit] Marling, hold the film together even as some of its more preposterous moments make Scientology look grounded.

Full Review | Jan 17, 2020

[The ending] a letdown initially, but it grows on me. Still, my curiosity nature would have liked to learn more about Earth 2.

Full Review | Jan 28, 2019

Transcending the spectacle associated with the genre in search of something more metaphysical, whilst commendably remaining firmly based in the roots of human behavior.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 6, 2018

Another Earth is a hauntingly beautiful exploration into grief, guilt and human nature. A stunning melancholic trance of a film which will leave viewers transfixed long after its gripping end.

Full Review | Dec 1, 2018

Another Earth is a beautiful, haunting film that manages to make its two main characters feel like real people, and makes the fate of these two lost souls seem as vital as what happens to this duplicate Earth.

Full Review | May 21, 2018

Another Earth is quite a gem in a lot of ways, but wrapped in an enigma. It's a very sophisticated approach to a familiar theme.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Sep 8, 2017

I loved this movie. Having said that, I'm sure it's not for everyone.

Full Review | Nov 16, 2015

Buried within Another Earth's framework is a wonderful sci-fi movie, but Cahill and Marling have unfortunately set it amongst this otherwise drab and predictable human drama.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2013

The wildly improbable set-up is merely the jumping off point for an exploration of grief, guilt and redemption

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 14, 2013

I didn't hate Another Earth so much as I found it to have begun with a fascinating sci fi premise only to produce, ultimately, a conventional relationship film.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Oct 4, 2012

Another Earth occasionally slips into chin-stroking pretention, but it flies the flags for indies with ideas bigger than their budgets.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 28, 2012

Another Earth doesn't fully come off - the slow pace stops it achieving escape velocity - but the intriguing ideas and Marling's touching performance make it a promising debut.

Full Review | Apr 2, 2012

A movie about our unending desire for second chances, no matter how rarely they happen.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 2, 2012

Skip to main content
Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Another Chance At Life On 'Another Earth'

Ella Taylor

Lost In The World: The humongous shadow of a just-emerged planet exactly like our own engulfs the life of Rhoda (Brit Marling), for whom another earth represents redemption. The film is most effective when it discards its own space junk and focuses on the simple story of a girl and her planet. Fox Searchlight Pictures hide caption

Another Earth

Director: Mike Cahill
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 92 minutes

Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, some sexuality, nudity and brief drug use

With: Brit Marling, William Mapother, Meggan Lennon, Matthew-Lee Erlbach

(Recommended)

Watch Clips

'We Have To Celebrate'

Credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures

'Are You Going'

'Russian Cosmonaut'

So there's this sad young astrophysicist who works, by choice, as a high school janitor. Not by chance, she shows up at the neglected home of an even glummer man whom she wronged years ago, even though they've never met. She offers herself as a housekeeper. After much cleaning, hemming and hawing the two fall in love, and why not? They both favor knitted caps, rumpled sweats and extremely long faces. Meanwhile, a humongous new planet inhabited by people who look suspiciously like us drifts into frame and stations itself right next to Earth, to the evident delight of the evening news. What gives?

Like many an ambitious novice, director Mike Cahill has stuffed every movie he ever wanted to make, every cockamamie parallel he wanted to draw, into his feature debut. I salute his guts and passion, and his imaginatively careless way with genre. Hold Another Earth up to one starry light and you'll see a sci-fi fantasy about parallel worlds. Look through a grainier lens, and you see a Sundance melodrama of moral and emotional recovery from trauma and crippling guilt. Both are goofy and good.

More than anything, though, Another Earth is an impressive calling card for Brit Marling, who wrote and produced the movie with Cahill, a classmate from Georgetown University. Marling also steals the movie as Rhoda Williams, a fledgling scientist whose four-year prison stint for a terrible crime has left her crippled by guilt and, in her view, fit for nothing but cleaning school toilets.

Marling is blond and gorgeous, and she has been noticed around Hollywood, where she's already tapped to play opposite Richard Gere in an upcoming thriller. With any luck, she will bat away all requests to file down her molars, tweeze her gloriously untended eyebrows or wriggle out of those baggy sweats. A fierce intelligence shines out of those delicate features, and as Rhoda, Marling gives quiet desperation a good name.

Marling brings a far-out premise down to earth with her sublimely implicit invocation of a woman creeping through a life derailed by her one tragic mistake. Blitzed and fragile though she is, Rhoda grows attached to the forbiddingly gruff John Burroughs (William Mapother, released from bad-guy duty and clearly loving it), a composer of avant-garde music who seems as undone by his past as she is. They dump the beanies and start dressing like real people. Soon she's in his bed, the movie's washed-out palette surges into warm color, he plays space music on a chainsaw, and love promises to purge both their hearts and minds of toxic matter.

Haunted by tragedy, Rhoda strikes up a romance with the similarly traumatized avant-garde composer John Burroughs (William Mapother). Though the introduction of the planet complicates their futures, the pair remain focused on the past. Fox Searchlight Pictures hide caption

Until, that is, Rhoda spills the beans. It would take a spare planet to sort out the mess that follows, but you don't have to share Cahill and Marling's taste for blending catastrophe and ecstasy to be entranced by the alternate earth that heaves into view, accompanied by a celestial score from the British duo Fall On Your Sword. The planet will play a crucial turning point in Rhoda and John's lives, but mostly it just hangs in the sky, a place of enchantment rather than threat, and promising all kinds of renewal.

Another Earth is cluttered with unnecessary debris, a philosophizing voice-over from real-life scientist Richard Berendzen and an elderly janitor (Kumar Pallana) who dispenses opaque wisdom every time he opens his mouth. Just looking at Marling and the shimmering globe is delight enough, but for Rhoda the New World represents repair and the possibility of escape from her pain and guilt. A ticket to fly lands in her lap, and she must decide whether to use it or face the music within. How the events unfold is not as self-evident as it seems, but it's weirdly satisfying to know that one of the lovers wins balm for the soul, while the other wins what most of us need — an encounter with a better self. (Recommended)

Movie review: ‘Another Earth’

Show more sharing options
Copy Link URL Copied!

“Another Earth” is quietly and movingly out of this world.

Director Mike Cahill has woven sci-fi imaginings and quantum physics theories of parallel universes into a provocative meditation on the prospect of rewriting your life history. It is no simple task to spin such abstract notions into smart (versus cheesy) entertainment, but there is such a strong creative voice stirring in Cahill’s first feature that it’s easy to forgive the shortcomings.

The film stars the ethereal young actress Brit Marling, who co-wrote and co-produced with Cahill, and the rock-solid William Mapother (Ethan on “Lost”). They are strangers whose lives are upended by tragedy on a night seemingly filled with endless possibilities brought about by the discovery of a replica of Earth, dubbed Earth 2, in our skies. What-ifs abound — what if there’s another you, what would you say if you met your other self?

The shoulders carrying the weight of these worlds belong to Rhoda (Marling), a high school senior whose MIT future goes up in flames after a horrific mistake sends her to jail, and John (Mapother), a noted composer whose life goes into a terrible tailspin after an unbearable loss. The major scientific and philosophic implications of Earth 2 are debated by TV talking heads, and there are brief narrative threads offered by a scientist the filmmaker met while working on the film, that serve to answer the kind of questions one would have if something like this actually happened. Locked in their own parallel universe are Rhoda and John, trying to make sense of their damaged existence.

By melding that collision of events, the filmmakers use the ordinary to examine the extraordinary, forcing the central characters to contemplate how a choice can change a life, the way regret reshapes a future, why redemption rarely comes easy and whether a second chance in any world is worth the risk. The intimate telling puts “Another Earth” in the tradition of humanistic sci-fi movies like John Carpenter’s “Starman” and John Sayles “Brother From Another Planet.”

Set in the New Haven, Conn., area and moving between Rhoda’s un-mussed suburban neighborhood, John’s isolated rural house and the windswept Atlantic beaches that seem chilly year-round, the script takes us quickly from that fateful night to a present day four years later. Rhoda is out of jail, her dreams of becoming an astrophysicist now shelved for a janitorial job at her old high school. In fact, cleaning up messes — both literally and metaphorically — is her new obsession. John, meanwhile, is the living embodiment of a mess — drinking away the nights and days with piles of clothes, papers and dishes growing as his house and career deteriorates.

The heart of the film hangs on both the everyday and otherworldly. What will happen when Rhoda turns up at John’s door with a free trial offer from the Maid in Haven cleaning service, yet another level of her self-imposed penance, and will she win the essay contest for a life-altering spot on the space shuttle bound for Earth 2?

Employing the lean look found in his documentary work, particularly 2004’s artfully done “Boxers and Ballerinas,” the director creates a stripped-down portraiture style that gives his actors plenty of room to breathe. Both Marling and Mapother breathe deeply as they swing between isolation and intimacy.

Because of her crime and the way it has marked her, Rhoda always seems a little spacey, in danger of drifting off. Marling’s gift is the nuanced way she uses the physical to keep her character tethered to reality — weary in scrubbing the school’s graffiti-covered walls, gentle in folding John’s freshly washed clothes. In Mapother, John’s rage and sadness becomes a hard shell protecting him from all that softness. Together they create a lovely balance with Cahill’s touch, which is also there as cinematographer and editor, forever light.

Everything is nicely knitted together with the help of an airy score from indie rock band Fall on Your Sword. The group manages to use electronic and authentic instruments to evoke one of those out-of-body planetarium memories; a heartbreaking solo with a bow and an old-fashioned handsaw becomes one of the most moving musical moments in memory.

With so many big ideas packed into this tiny indie, it should come as no surprise that there are loose threads everywhere. What keeps it all from unraveling is the assurance found in even the most unfinished moments. As for the imagination in “Another Earth,” there are no outer limits.

[email protected]

In the sci-fi thriller ‘Dark Matter,’ Joel Edgerton battles through parallel worlds

May 7, 2024

3 Body Problem. (L to R) Jess Hong as Jin Cheng, John Bradley as Jack Rooney in episode 103 of 3 Body Problem.

Review: ‘3 Body Problem’ is an alien invasion story that doesn’t feel like a retread

March 20, 2024

Los Angeles, CA, Friday, March 8, 2024 - Final preparations continue for the Academy Awards ceremony in and around Dolby Theater. Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Letters to the Editor: From ‘Idiocracy’ to ‘Star Trek,’ climate themes already abound in movies

March 10, 2024

The biggest entertainment stories

Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Former Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey is an award-winning entertainment journalist and bestselling author. She left the newsroom in 2015. In addition to her critical essays and reviews of about 200 films a year for The Times, Sharkey’s weekly movie reviews appeared in newspapers nationally and internationally. Her books include collaborations with Oscar-winning actresses Faye Dunaway on “Looking for Gatsby” and Marlee Matlin on “I’ll Scream Later.” Sharkey holds a degree in journalism and a master’s in communications theory from Texas Christian University.

More From the Los Angeles Times

A girl speaks with a large purple creature.

Review: ‘IF,’ a movie about imaginary friends, requires suspension of disbelief — and a few more drafts

NEW YORK - MAY 8, 2024: Jeremy Renner who stars in the Paramount+ series "Mayor of Kingstown" in New York on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (Paul Yem / For The Times)

Defying the odds, Jeremy Renner marks a ‘glorious’ return with ‘Mayor of Kingstown’

Director Francis Ford Coppola attends a ceremony honoring him with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, March 21, 2022, in Los Angeles.

Francis Ford Coppola teases ‘Godfather’ update, criticizes Hollywood studios at Cannes

May 17, 2024

Austin Butler in the movie “The Bikeriders”; Lily (Sasha Lane) and Tyler (Glen Powell) in “Twisters”; Colman Domingo in “Sing Sing.”

The 15 movies you need to see this summer

ANOTHER EARTH: A Multidimensional Success

Facebook Data not found. Please check your user ID. Twitter You currently have access to a subset of Twitter API v2 endpoints and limited v1.1 endpoints (e.g. media post, oauth) only. If you need access to this endpoint, you may need a different access level. You can learn more here: https://developer.twitter.com/en/portal/product Youtube 1.1K

I SAW THE TV GLOW: We’re All Going To The Pink Opaque

NEW LIFE: That’s Not Ebola, Raymond

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS: A Fur Trapping Photoplay Of The Highest Order

Watching SPIDER-MAN 2 On The Big Screen For The First Time

CURL POWER: Strength In Unity

Horrific Inquiry: TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016)

THE BEAST: An Unnerving Collage of Henry James, Sci-Fi, and Angry Young Men

LIMBO: Out In The Open With Nowhere To Turn

FEMME: An Agressive Gay Revenge Film

HUMANE: Caitlin Joins The Cronenberg Family Business

STRESS POSITIONS & Interview With Theda Hammel & John Early

ISA TOP 25 SCREENWRITERS TO WATCH Interview With Kathryn Orwig

Stephanie Archer is 39 year old film fanatic living in…

There is magic in the art of indie film. A journey of exploration whose defined boxes of storytelling give way, warping and bending, allowing for emotional explorations and narrative oddities to fill the screen. Outside the blockbuster realm, it’s where some of the best geniuses take root. And writer-director Mike Cahill’s Another Earth is the perfect example of why we need more.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, Another Earth , co-written by Brit Marling , was a film I was initially drawn to by its location more than its storyline. Filmed in my home state of Connecticut, down the road from where I worked, the idea of seeing my local community on film was an experience I could not pass up. I had hopes of enjoying Another Earth beyond its locale, especially since there had been a lot of buzz following its Sundance release, but I wasn’t prepared to fall in love with this film. With a score and an ending I’ve been unable to shake since 2011, the film marks the beginning of a loyal following for one of the most talented writers/actors in Hollywood.

A Solid Beginning

Another Earth does not hold back, utilizing its pulsating opening score and montage of party footage to heighten the narration of the film’s protagonist. She talks of falling in love with Jupiter and space, as high-speed video details the hypnotizing nature of Jupiter’s gases as they encircle the planet in motion. As you are mesmerized by the planet, so too are you by the carefree nature of the young teenager, standing at the precipice of her future: acceptance to MIT. There is promise and euphoria within the montage, coupled with a foreboding feeling as it comes to a halt with the clearly inebriated teen getting into her car.

ANOTHER EARTH: A Multidimensional Success

As she’s driving, the radio broadcaster announces the breaking news that a new planet similar to our own has been discovered and that if you look up into the night sky, you just might be able to see it. While the young teen looks up, taking in the wonder and excitement of the new discovery, the camera leaves her, coming to rest on a young family waiting at a stoplight. There is an intriguing point of view presented to audiences, the camera taking in each individual within the car through a series of close-ups, eventually pulling away in order to look at the car from above – allowing the action to come onto the screen. As the young teen crashes into the family’s Volvo, there is no immediate breakaway, no cuts to the individuals in either car. It feels as though in the time Earth was looking up at the new planet, they too were looking down at us.

What Another Eart h does so successfully here is not only to establish a basis for its future theories about the emergence and existence of the new planet but also bring into focus a philosophical concept of self that will follow Rhoda ( Brit Marling ) – and the rest of the planet – throughout the entirety of the film. It is here that the carefree and ecocentric nature of the young teenager is thrown into perspective, her world crashing into another’s, permanently instilling an awareness of others and the world around her. Paralleled, on the same evening, of those on Earth experiencing the same feeling – though not as dramatically – of breaking an ecocentric viewpoint on the universe. They are no longer alone.

As audiences recover from the shock, Rhoda awakens from her injuries sustained in the crash, the realization of what has happened slowly taking shape as she exits her vehicle to examine the damage. The accident is discreetly graphic, with limited shots of the injured family from Rhoda’s perspective. However, saving the shocking reveal of how deeply devastating the accident is, the camera once again pulls away and looks down.

Depth of Character

As you feel the horrific nature of the accident, it creates a deeply altering moment for the main character. A moment one can never truly come back from. A moment that controls and influences all her decisions going forward. As you feel Rhoda almost holding her breath, the film jumps forward four years. There is little information given as to what has transpired during this time, the filmmaker certain of the audience’s ability to infer. Now in the present day, the mirrored planet is even closer, constantly on the horizon, and Rhoda finds herself being released from prison.

Quickly, the film works to establish her current relationships with those around her. As she leaves prison, you see the disconnected relationships that night has left in its wake, the film conscious that the effect of the accident ripples beyond just Rhoda and the victims. Her younger brother is ecstatic by her return, yet disjointed in his interaction with her. Rhoda’s parents are quiet and reserved around her. Even the ripples and disconnection with the future is established as she enters her room, the mise en scène devastatingly showing the potential she once had – the future she lost that night.

The film gives Rhoda the time to work through reacquainting her surroundings and readjusting to life outside of prison. We as viewers are unaware of what life was like within, but we can infer the loneliness and guilt Rhoda has carried with her. As she reaches out to find the forgiveness to move forward and to obtain even a sliver of peace for herself and those she has affected, her life begins to take an unexpected turn. Opportunities present themselves in the most unlikely of people and the most unlikely of places.

It’s all in the details

Another Earth is jam-packed with gorgeous wide shots taking in the West Haven shoreline and the encroaching duplicate earth. Rolling clouds and clear skies each have a moment to shine as the main character walks past. As she is having a moment of reflection in the isolation of her walk, viewers are given the same within the moment and the scenery.

The score is equally breathtaking. It is both intense and emotionality whimsical within its flowing cello accompaniment. No matter the sound, however, the score throughout maintains a steady beat, speaking to the character and surrounding her in the push forward. There is no judgment, but rather a whispering of understanding and a hope for the future.

Another Earth also boasts a strong personification of loneliness and guilt in John and Rhoda. While the origins may be from a different perspective, it is shared and quietly understood. There is an unspoken language created between the two, one rarely heard yet one that can be understood by all who watch the film. What makes this language so transcendent are the performances by Brit Marling and William Mapother . There is an awkward chemistry between them that works here, both for their interactions and the story as a whole. They allow themselves time to breathe within their characters, their moments of reflections as actors apparent in the breadth of life on screen. They are unafraid to embrace the ugly, allowing their characters to live the journey they have been scripted to its fullest extent.

Conclusion: Another Earth

When all is said and done, audiences will find themselves questioning the ideas of a mirrored planet, the ideas of doppelgängers, and the “what if” questions the film forces its characters to consider. What if the accident had never happened – how would each of their lives be different?

Another Earth is multifaceted and deeply layered, its nuanced performances and examination of alternate possibilities providing viewers with a unique viewing experience. As this film celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, the relevancy and poignancy of Another Earth sure to resonate even more deeply than before.

Have you seen Another Earth? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below.

Watch Another Earth

Does content like this matter to you.

Become a Member and support film journalism. Unlock access to all of Film Inquiry`s great articles. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about cinema - get access to our private members Network, give back to independent filmmakers, and more.

Stephanie Archer is 39 year old film fanatic living in Norwalk, CT, USA.

Write for Us
Become a Patron
Comment Policy
Terms & Conditions
Staff Login

Den of Geek

Another Earth review

A low-budget film full of high-concept ideas, Another Earth is Mike Cahill’s debut feature. Here’s Ryan’s review of an atmospheric sci-fi drama…

Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
Share on email (opens in a new tab)

Beautifully shot on a tiny budget by former documentary maker and debut feature director Mike Cahill, Another Earth brings with it a similar style and meditative atmosphere that Gareth Edwards brought to last year’s Monsters . And like Monsters , Another Earth introduces a great sci-fi concept that serves as a tantalising backdrop rather than a central premise.

It asks what would happen if an identical copy of Earth, populated by our exact doubles, were to suddenly float into our solar system. It’s a great idea, but one only lightly explored in Another Earth ’s 90-minute duration. Instead, Cahill’s film concerns itself with the life of a young girl, Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling, who also co-wrote) who, at the outset, is an intelligent yet reckless 17-year-old.

Leaving a party drunk and possibly high one night, her car collides with that of composer John Burroughs (William Mapother), killing his pregnant wife and son instantly. Four years later, Rhoda emerges from jail, wracked with guilt and her dreams of becoming an astrophysicist left far behind. In her absence, a duplicate of Earth has appeared, and now hangs ominously in the sky.

As Rhoda gradually makes what she can of her life, taking up a job as a cleaner at her old high school, scientists on TV speculate about the inhabitants of what they unimaginatively dub Earth 2. Are their lives mirror images of ours, or have their paths subtly diverged?

Ad – content continues below

In one of the film’s most electrifying moments, a scientist from SETI contacts the other Earth, and holds an eerie conversation with her doppelganger.

Elsewhere, a space tourism company holds a competition. The prize: a seat on the first plane to Earth 2. Rhoda, sullen and lonely, enters, hoping that a trip to the other planet will provide the answers she’s looking for. But then a chance encounter with the widowed composer leads her towards an unlikely relationship that could change everything.

Although shot on a tiny budget, Cahill’s crafted a striking looking film. It lacks the intricate effects shots of Monsters , but it’s full of similarly poignant and beautifully-judged moments of delicate drama. Rhoda’s blossoming relationship with John is expertly handled, and both actors turn in the subtle, intimate sort of performances a little film like this requires.

Mapother’s turn as John, in particular, is superb, since it’s his character who’s given the most transformative arc; when Rhoda first meets him, he’s an emotionally shattered husk in a woollen hat, and barely able to look after himself. Gradually, however, his relationship with Rhoda sees a happier man emerge from the wreckage.

There are long moments where characters simply sit and contemplate, or go for long walks across quiet, desolate vistas. It’s the sort of thing that will inevitably alienate some, but Cahill directs with grace and subtlety – Another Earth is like a visual poem, serving as both a character study and an atmospheric mood piece. It’s a little like a low-budget Tree Of Life – and depending on your view of Terence Malick’s latest film, that’ll either serve as an attractive notion or a flashing warning beacon.

There may be long stretches where little happens, but there are light touches here and there, tiny dramatic flourishes, that could only come from an intelligent group of filmmakers: Rhoda’s parable about a Russian cosmonaut, or a subtly played moment where John and Rhoda stare up at Earth 2 through a telescope. It’s certainly the first film I’ve seen where the two leads bond over a game of Wii Sports.

It could be argued, in fact, that Another Earth is a little too subtle. Throughout the film, Earth 2 hangs in the air like a silent enigma, and there’s so much more scope to the premise that is left unexplored – either due to budgetary constraints, or simply because Cahill wanted to tell a different kind of story.

Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

When the final credits rolled, I initially felt a little nonplussed. But later, as I ran down the length of Oxford Street to catch a tube train home, I briefly caught sight of the Moon hanging in the sky. It was large and grey and full, and for just a moment, a bit of my brain wondered whether I was looking at Earth’s twin. It was then that I realised just how much of Another Earth ’s sombre tone had seeped into my subconscious.

It’s not often that I leave a film desperately wanting to see a sequel, but in the case of Another Earth, I was left hoping that Cahill and Marling will revisit the premise they’ve created, which is rich with possibility. In the film’s production notes, it says that he has ideas for two other features: one about reincarnation, and the other about a fashion designer who lives under the sea.

Another Earth isn’t without flaw, but it’s a fascinating debut, and whatever Cahill directs next – whether it’s about people who think they’re a reborn Napoleon, or a fashionista in a diving bell – I’ll be near the front of the line to see it.

Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here . And be our Facebook chum here .

Ryan Lambie

Another Earth Review

09 Dec 2011

Another Earth

There is a heartening story behind Another Earth. Twenty-seven year-old economics graduate Brit Marling turned down a job at Goldman Sachs to pursue an acting career in LA. Eschewing Disposable-Blonde-No. 2-type roles, she taught herself to write, made a documentary, Boxers And Ballerinas, with Mike Cahill, and the pair have now produced this Sundance winner. The ingredients may be bizarre — Twilight Zone sci-fi, Tom Cruise’s cousin, Kieslowski-esque gloom, metaphysical musing, pulsating electronica — but come together into something thought-provoking, fresh and affecting.

In outline, Another Earth has all the elements of an identikit indie: emotionally shattered people rebuilding each other, a rough-hewn aesthetic, an ambient score by Chicago hipsters Fall On Your Sword, even a cameo by Wes Anderson stalwart Kumar Pallana. So far, so Sundance. But Cahill and Marling’s film has bigger fish to fry.

As cosmic as it is introspective, it’s a film that has its eye on the big picture — the realisation of Earth 2 is neatly if modestly evinced — without ever losing sight of the personal dramas. It may have no truck with the science of a duplicate Earth miraculously appearing — there is no discussion of such downers as gravitational pull — but it is alive to the emotional and philosophical ramifications of the conceit (what would you say to yourself if you met yourself?), often conveyed through snatches of media rather than the stultified characters.

Against such lofty concerns, Cahill delivers a satisfying emotional drama. As Rhoda (Marling) poses as a cleaner to inveigle her way into a life she’s wrecked, we get an ages-old plot core — two people slowly get to know each other, but only one of them is aware of their tragic connection — but the tentative build-up and strong playing of Marling and William Mapother (Tom Cruise’s cousin) as the bereaved music professor make you care. Mapother gives the film sympathy but this is Marling’s show, grief-stricken but unsentimental, registering every emotional shift as she comes to terms with what she has done. It’s a great turn that means when the sci-fi strand and the human drama come together, it’s a belter.

Movies | 08 11 2018

Turn autoplay off

Turn autoplay on

Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off

Jump to content [s]
Jump to site navigation [0]
Jump to search [4]
Terms and conditions [8]
Your activity
Email subscriptions
Account details
Linked services
Press office
Guardian Print Centre
Guardian readers' editor
Observer readers' editor
Terms of service
Privacy policy
Advertising guide
Digital archive
Digital edition
Guardian Weekly
Buy Guardian and Observer photos

Today's paper

Main section
G2 features
Comment and debate
Editorials, letters and corrections
Other lives
EducationGuardian
Life & style
Environment

Another Earth

Details: 2011, USA, Cert 12A, 92 mins

Direction: Mike Cahill

Summary: A duplicate earth is discovered on the same night that a composer and a student are involved in a tragic accident

With: Brit Marling , Matthew-Lee Erlbach and William Mapother

Our reviews

Philip french, peter bradshaw, user reviews, related articles, another earth: 'gazes at the sky and its shoes' - video.

Mike Cahill's indie drama, about the existence of a second Earth, complete with parallel yous and alternative mes, is based on a great idea but shoots shy of the stars, says Xan Brooks (1)

Poster notes: Another Earth

Paul Owen interviews director Mike Cahill about the poster for his new movie â and what it's like to discover that you and Lars von Trier have had almost the same idea

Today's best video

The week in tv, 'get your arse out, mate', spanish football player's stunning solo goal, whitewater kayaking: 'i wanted to spend every day on the river'.

Most viewed

Last 24 hours

2. Star Wars Episode VII: what we know as shooting starts
3. The Goonies sequel confirmed by director Richard Donner
4. After Gremlins and The Goonies, what other 80s films need a remake?
5. 2 States and screen kisses: 'Bollywood is cranking it up a notch'
More most viewed
2. Quiz: Can you match each of these Bond villains with their own evil plot?
3. Russian cinemas fined for showing The Wolf of Wall Street
4. 2 States and screen kisses: 'Bollywood is cranking it up a notch'
5. After Gremlins and The Goonies, what other 80s films need a remake?
All today's stories

Film search

Latest reviews.

Noah review â 'a preposterous but endearingly unhinged epic'

Russell Crowe wrestles angels and demons in Darren Aronofsky's $125m mashup of the ancient story of Noah, writes Mark Kermode

Honour review â Shan Khan's 'conflicted' first feature

The Double review â Richard Ayoade's dark doppelganger drama

Divergent review â lacks lustre and grit

A Story of Children and Film review â Mark Cousins's 'spine-tingling' visual essay

Movie Review: Another Earth (2011)

Marco Duran
Movie Reviews
No responses
--> July 8, 2011

Independent films rarely take on science fiction. Reason is because sci-fi films usually require lots of money for sets and effects (movies with angsty conversations about your family, on the other hand, are relatively cheap and easy to make). When the genre is tackled, however, I have often enjoyed the results mostly because they tend to be deconstructions or re-imaginings of the sci-fi tropes and the films I’ve seen before. That is exactly what Another Earth is. The duo who wrote the film are the director and the main star, Mike Cahill and Brit Marling. In this film, they wrote up an amalgamation of two significantly individual films that, at times, were smashed together to good effect.

Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) is a bright young woman accepted into MIT’s astrophysics program. She aspires to explore the cosmos. A brilliant composer, John Burroughs (William Mapother — Ethan from Lost ), has just reached the pinnacle of his profession and is about to have a second child. On the eve of the amazing discovery of another world with the same bodies of water, continents, people, history, and in all ways, a perfect duplicate of our own planet, tragedy strikes and the lives of these strangers become irrevocably intertwined.

When the identical planet, called Earth 2, first appears in the night sky it is a small blue speck. Four years later, Earth 2 appears on the horizon as a bigger sphere then the moon which would not only mean that in the next few months the two planets would collide but also that there would be so much havoc being wreaked upon our earth — tidal waves, shifting poles — that we would be cursing Earth 2 rather than trying to contact it. So you can kind of see that physics is definitely played with fast and loose. Another Earth is as sci-fi as Back to the Future was; in other words, it’s just a plot point — all fiction and no science. That said, it is a new way to do the overly trodden alternate dimension/alternate timeline story and for that I give it a few brownie points.

The second part of the story is something akin to Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King or Alejandro Inarritu’s 21 Grams where guilt leads a character to reach out to someone they feel they owe something to. Both of those comparisons are weak though and the way the shame and sorrow storyline is woven into the Earth 2 storyline — “I wonder if my life is as jacked up on Earth 2 as it is here.” — took it all in a new direction and explored new ideas which I enjoyed. The two main actors, Brit and William, were fearless and flawless in bringing the depression their characters were feeling to the forefront and not holding anything back. The only thing they never sold me on was the romance that was supposed to have been blossoming between them. It never felt like they should be lovers; it felt like they should have remained good friends in their strange, psychotic and entirely messed up relationship.

Director Cahill will be someone I expect to see great things from. He intros Another Earth in a way that reminded me of the way Aronofsky introed his own debut, Pi — loud and abrasive drawing you right into the story, no questions asked. Cahill is minimalistic in his dialogue, often letting the visuals speak for themselves for long stretches of the film. Sometimes this makes his characters feel like observers in a world that is no longer their own; sometimes it makes them distant to the audience. It’s good that he has such confidence in his composition and cinematographer, whose itchy zoom-lens trigger finger needs to be controlled, but it will be interesting to see if he continues the understated style he’s pursuing here. I also want to praise Fall on Your Sword, the band responsible for this film’s score. It was brilliant and perfectly sweet and nasty and gritty.

All this said, I spent most of the film thinking, “Where in the blue blazes have I seen this story before?” Not only because it felt like a retread as I’ve stated but also because it felt familiar, like an old friend you haven’t seen for years. They look familiar, but they’ve changed and you can’t quite place where you know them from. When the light bulb finally comes on, all the memories flood back and you can sit down with them and see the path they’ve taken that has brought them to you again.

Marco wrote, directed and produced the feature film Within. He has lived in the Los Angeles area his whole life. Top 10 Favorite Movies : Fight Club, The Fountain, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Oldboy, Pulp Fiction, Children of Men, City of God, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Shawshank Redemption and Memento. Top 5 Favorite Directors : Spike Jonze, Darren Aronofsky, Alfonso Cuaron, Quentin Tarantino and Billy Wilder. Top 3 Favorite Film Composers : Clint Mansell, John Williams and Howard Shore. You can follow his 140 character movie reviews on Twitter Or friend him on Facebook Or watch some short films of his on YouTube

Movie Review: The Help (2011) Movie Review: The Perfect Host (2010) Movie Review: Summer Children (1965) Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) Movie Review: African Cats (2011) Movie Review: Mars Needs Moms (2011) Movie Review: Dream Home (2010)

'Movie Review: Another Earth (2011)' has no comments

| Log in

an image, when javascript is unavailable

Another Earth

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Don’t let this low-budget indie get crushed by the summer behemoths. Another Earth offers imagination and provocation to spare. By way of plot I’ll say only this: Scientists have discovered a replica of Earth orbiting the sun. This is a game-changer for Rhoda (Brit Marling), an MIT student whose drunken joy ride resulted in the death of a pregnant mother and her son. Only the husband, music professor John Burroughs (William Mapother), survived. Can another Earth offer Rhoda salvation or just deeper damnation? Newcomer Marling, who wrote the artful script with director Mike Cahill, is a talent to watch. She and Cahill have crafted a mesmerizing mind-bender to haunt your dreams.

Related • The 12 Must-See Summer Movies — Plus Five Unheralded Gems and Five More to Skip • The Best and Worst Movies of 2011 — So Far

Kevin Spacey Says #MeToo Movement 'Swung' Far in 'Unfairness' in Rare Interview Amid Allegations

Pendulum Swings
By Charisma Madarang

Jake Gyllenhaal, Bowen Yang Serenade Sabrina Carpenter With 'Board Shorts Summer' in 'SNL' Teaser

Sabrina Night Live

‘The Big Cigar’ Is About Black Panthers Founder Huey P. Newton. But Its Real Message Is: ‘Hollywood, Fuck Yeah!’

power to the (movie) people
By Alan Sepinwall

'Shōgun': Two More Seasons (Potentially) in the Works

limited no more?
By Daniel Kreps

'Megalopolis': Francis Ford Coppola's Decades-Long Dream Project Is Truly Epic

CANNES MOVIE REVIEW
By David Fear

Most Popular

'mad max' director says 'there's no excuse' for tom hardy and charlize theron's 'fury road' set feud: tom 'had to be coaxed out of his trailer', john krasinski on getting bradley cooper, george clooney, ryan reynolds to join 'if': "most yeses of my career", melania trump confirms her son barron just made a total 180 once again with his future, dj akademiks says he'll take entire industry down if convicted in rape lawsuit, you might also like, ‘the blue angels’ review: dazzling imax documentary showcases top guns, but no mavericks, selena gomez makes a breezy cannes film festival arrival in flared self-portrait minidress ahead of ‘emilia perez’ premiere, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, ‘the idea of you’ is a massive streaming success, but theaters helped get it there, scheffler faces felony charge after incident at pga championship.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

For Parents
For Educators
Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

Get the app
Movie Reviews
Best Movie Lists
Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best TV Lists
Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
Common Sense Selections for TV
Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

Book Reviews
Best Book Lists
Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Game Reviews
Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Podcast Reviews
Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

App Reviews
Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

YouTube Channel Reviews
YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

Explaining the News to Our Kids

Family Tech Planners
Digital Skills
All Articles
Latino Culture
Black Voices
Asian Stories
Native Narratives
LGBTQ+ Pride
Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Another earth, common sense media reviewers.

Downbeat indie drama with sci-fi angle has mature themes.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The main character spends her time trying to figur

Rhoda makes a huge mistake -- drunk driving and ki

The movie begins with a terrible car crash with bl

The main characters have sex, but no nudity is sho

"My God" (as an exclamation).

The main character does a Google search and almost

The main character gets into a serious drunk drivi

Positive Messages

The main character spends her time trying to figure out how to move on from a terrible accident, dealing with guilt and hopelessness, as well as small moments of hope. She finds her best chance through compassion and selflessness.

Positive Role Models

Rhoda makes a huge mistake -- drunk driving and killing a mother and child -- for which she cannot forgive herself; she spends four years in prison as well. For these reasons, she can't be considered a great role model, even though she works to make a positive new life for herself. She alternates between small moments of hope and big moments of hopelessness, but she does begin to find that compassion and selflessness have their rewards.

Violence & Scariness

The movie begins with a terrible car crash with blood and dead bodies (including the body of a young boy). The main character tries to kill herself. Some shouting and arguing, and, in one scene, a man briefly tries to choke a woman. A secondary character is seen in the hospital, the result of having poured bleach in his ears.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

The main characters have sex, but no nudity is shown. Brief kissing between minor characters. The main character appears semi-nude when she tries to commit suicide, but only her rear end is really visible.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

The main character does a Google search and almost buys a package of Gummi Bears.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The main character gets into a serious drunk driving accident, though she's not shown to have a drinking problem. She drinks wine later in the film. The movie begins at a party, with brief flashes of teens drinking (and possibly doing drugs). Another major character seems to be drunk much of the time, though he's not seen drinking; viewers see half-empty bottles around his house. A teen boy mentions "getting high."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this downbeat, low-budget indie drama (with sci-fi undertones) revolves around a severe drunk-driving accident and the two survivors' ensuing attempts to get through life. There's some teen drinking, as well as sporadic drinking throughout and mentions/brief images of drugs. The central car crash has some graphic images, with blood and dead bodies (including the body of a little boy); viewers can also expect threats, yelling, a suicide attempt, and a brief attempted choking. There's one sex scene (no nudity), and one scene in which the main character lies naked in the snow (only her rear end is shown). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (1)
Kids say (4)

Based on 1 parent review

2.5 stars? Better for Adults

What's the story.

After celebrating her acceptance into MIT, Rhoda ( Brit Marling ) is driving home, drunk, when she hears on the radio news of a new planet; it has an atmosphere and water and continents and is visible to the naked eye. While peering into the night sky, she crashes into a stopped car, killing a mother and son and sending the father into a coma. Four years later, Rhoda gets out of jail and decides to visit the man, composer John Burroughs ( William Mapother ), to apologize. At the last second, she loses her courage and tells a lie about working for a cleaning company. They slowly get to know each other and bring hope back into each other's lives. But what happens when the truth comes out, and what's the secret behind the other earth?

Is It Any Good?

Marling and director Mike Cahill teamed up to write this screenplay, cleverly weaving a science-fiction element -- the concept of an alternate earth -- into the drama. That idea works beautifully, and it adds new layers of questions about who we are, our destiny, etc. This is most welcome, since the movie's main plot is pretty creaky. Like the laziest of Hollywood romantic comedies, it's based on the stretching of a lie. (Rhoda must convince John that she's just a cleaning lady rather than the driver who killed his family.)

Overall, the film's genuinely touching side overpowers the hackneyed stuff. Aside from the lofty, thoughtful subtext surrounding the drama, Cahill and Marling zoom in for a nicely focused set of characters and performances. Marling is in nearly every shot, and she's magnetic, conveying a lifetime's worth of hurt and beauty. Likewise, Kumar Pallana -- best known for his supporting roles in Wes Anderson 's films -- provides some small, lovely, thoughtful moments.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the movie's violent scenes . How does their impact compare to what you see in bigger sci-fi/action movies? What is the purpose of the graphic scenes in this movie?

What would it mean to visit an alternate earth? Would you want to meet yourself? Are there any decisions you'd change if you could?

How does the movie portray drinking and its consequences?

Movie Details

In theaters : July 22, 2011
On DVD or streaming : November 29, 2011
Cast : Brit Marling , Kumar Pallana , William Mapother
Director : Mike Cahill (II)
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Fox Searchlight
Genre : Drama
Run time : 92 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : disturbing images, some sexuality, nudity and brief drug use
Last updated : February 22, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

Donnie Darko

Want personalized picks for your kids' age and interests?

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

The Fountain

Indie films, offbeat animated movies.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

We have opinions.

Another Earth

February 14, 2012 By Søren Hough 10 Comments

Another Earth follows a girl named Rhoda who one day finds herself in a traumatizing accident with a car carrying a family of four. The crash kills three family members and puts the last, a music professor, into a coma. Consequently, Rhoda is thrown in jail and serves a multi-year sentence. Upon her release, she learns that the professor has woken from his coma and goes to try and reconcile with him. He doesn’t recognize her or her name, and an unlikely relationship blossoms between the two. Oh, and there’s some other planet that just appeared in the night sky that resembles Earth, or something.

Sound like a cerebral sci-fi film? No? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.

Brit Marling gives a fairly solid but strangely dispassionate performance as protagonist Rhoda Williams. Marling was also the screenwriter for Another Earth , and I got the distinct feeling as the movie progressed that she had a very specific image in her head of how her story would look on-screen. Of course, since she was not directing the film, her performance felt disconnected from how the events were ultimately portrayed. I don’t know if this is an accurate assumption, but that was the impression I got. William Mapother is passable as John Burroughs, the man whom Rhoda feels indebted to for her role in the accident that killed his family, but his emotional peaks and troughs feel strained and unconvincing.

As Mike Cahill’s directorial debut, the film is understandably held back by his lack of experience. One of the most obvious offenses is the use of incredibly obvious symbolism, such as placing Rhoda next to a sign that says “No Animals Allowed.” Overused clichés, like a guy in a tinfoil hat, also appear periodically in Another Earth . Both of these pitfalls that detract from the film’s apparently deeper philosophical aspirations. Moreover, the progression of events, while paced fairly well, don’t flow together as organically as I might have liked in a drama. Events frequently happen illogically or without clear reasons, making them difficult to believe and therefore breaking the audience’s immersion.

Dialogue is problematic, but this time it isn’t because of its glibness or sparseness. Rather, Marling elected to write in random and often unnecessary exposition to be spouted by nearly every character we meet. Most infuriatingly, a brief series of ephemeral interactions which Rhoda has with a coworker climax in what is supposed to be one of the most pivotal scenes in Another Earth . However, due to a total lack of emotional investment in our protagonist and this random side character, their ruminations about life and how the world works fall on deaf ears. This causes the apex of Rhoda’s character development to fall totally flat. I would have much preferred a show-don’t-tell approach that got across what points Marling was trying to make. Instead, we get long speeches about things that seem irrelevant both to the drama at hand, and to the Earth 2 plot line that is constantly taking backseat to Rhoda and John’s romance.

Aesthetically, Another Earth takes on a distractingly washed-out look for most of the film. In addition, some odd editing choices and strange zooms and cuts make the cinematography have a distinct but altogether jumbled feel. However, if there are any truly shining moments in Another Earth , it’s the beautiful scenic shots of Rhoda gazing up at Earth 2 – I just wish they had some fleshed out that part of the story to give those scenes more meaningful context.

By the end of the movie, you will likely feel cheated by the decision Marling made to focus the film so much on the relationship between Rhoda and John, as opposed to the incredibly fascinating sci-fi concept of another earth. Sadly, this holds back the film more than any acting, editing, or directorial nitpicks I could make. What could have been an interesting, unique sci-fi film with a heavily dramatic core (like the wonderful 2009 film Moon ), ends up being an unengaging, somewhat creepy romance story. The only real reason to see this film is to see Brit Marling’s work both on-screen and off (in case she does catapult into mainstream stardom sometime soon), and so that you can acknowledge it for the failed experiment that it is.

Verdict: Movie Meh Score: 60%

A Note on the Premise – I really did feel the sci-fi premise was underutilized. A whole other planet that in fact matches our own in every possible way raises so many questions. If you have a duplicate person on this “other Earth” who does everything you do, do you really have free will? If we can observe the silliness and illogical nature of the wars and other conflicts we wage from a bird’s eye view, might we decide to end our bickering on our own planet and make an effort toward world peace? And by making contact with this other planet, are we disrupting the careful balance between our two worlds? Unfortunately, Another Earth is not the film to even ask these questions, let alone answer them. A real shame.

A Note on the Ending – What the **** is up with that last scene? Unless I totally missed something, or unless it’s some sort of metaphor, it made no sense whatsoever. I hate endings that make no sense.

About Søren Hough

Søren is Editor-in-Chief at Movie Fail. He is a freelance journalist covering science, politics and film. He writes for RogerEbert.com , wrote for ScottFeinberg.com and served as the Assistant Arts Editor for Film and Television at The Massachusetts Daily Collegian .

About Us Meet Our Staff FAQs Privacy

Movie Reviews
Blu-ray/DVD

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

'another earth' movie review.

No comments:

Netflix's asteroid-impact series 'Goodbye Earth' is an insufferably slow disaster saga (review)

This good-looking, well-acted dystopian calamity is the ideal cure for sleeplessness.

a Korean woman in a yellow coat and bloodstained clothes stands with flaming crashed cars behind her.

When you start rooting for the planet-killing asteroid in a speculative disaster show to please hurry up and put humanity out of its misery, you know the series is in trouble.

And that's precisely the case with Netflix's new dystopian sci-fi series, "Goodbye Earth," a well-meaning project hailing from South Korea, directed by Kim Jin-min ("My Name," "Extracurricular)" and starring Ahn Eun-jin, Yoo Ah-in, Jeon Sung-woo and Kim Yoon-hye. It's loosely adapted by screenwriter Jung Sung-joo from Japanese writer Kōtarō Isaka's novel, "The Fool at the End of the World" ("Shūmatsu no Fūru").

The convoluted 12-episode series chronicles the final 200 days before Feb. 22, 2026, when a humongous (and fictional) asteroid named Dina is slated to slam into the Korean peninsula. South Korea is under martial law due to riots, looting, suicides and political chaos as citizens flee ground zero for safer regions around the world. Those who can't afford to uproot and relocate are forced to deal with food shortages, roving gangs, scam artists and bureaucratic mayhem.

Related: Images of potentially dangerous asteroids

"Goodbye Earth" takes a familiar countdown clock approach as these types of disaster films and series often do, with the predictable anarchy taking hold on society as the days and weeks tick off.

Like trying to grab handfuls of dissipating smoke or capture a greased piglet at a county fair, "Goodbye Earth" is a slippery series to latch onto. It can be difficult to watch as the body counts rise and humanity begins to tear itself apart in predictable ways. What's commendable is that the creators don't sugar-coat the reality of the dire situation and instead force us to endure the wrenching despair, deepening depression and hopelessness of the cataclysmic situation.

However, it's a severely slow-paced affair that immediately suffers from total narrative collapse within the first two episodes. This first phase of the series sets up the plight of a teacher trying to get her former students to safety, the struggling citizens of Woongcheon City, soldiers attempting to keep some semblance of order, and wealthy Koreans scrabbling to leave the country by any means possible.

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

Much of this haphazard editing and scene construction is due to the fact that most of actor Yoo Ah-in's sequences had to be erased out of the series due to drug charges being imposed against him this past October.

chaos erupts in a city with a doomsday countdown projected overhead

— Death by asteroid: The most likely ways for a space rock to kill you

— The best sci-fi movies and TV shows to stream on Netflix in May

— The best space movies of all time

The confusing plot moves at a glacial pace, with characters popping in and out of episodes in no apparent order, then vanishing for hours, only to reappear with vague motivations at different points in the timeline. One bright spot is the stirring score by Hwang Sang-jun, especially the opening title song, "Farewell," by the K-pop band Pre-Holiday — it's an infectiously good tune that you'll remember long after the evil asteroid announcing armageddon appears in the night sky.

"This is a very unique dystopian genre series, which sets characters heading toward dystopia," director Kim Jin-min told The Korea Herald . "It's not about their struggles for survival, but something that throws a question, 'What would you do [when you have 200 days to live]?' The main idea is that, for all people, from 4-year-olds to 80-year-olds, life is equally blessed and precious."

If you're looking for an utterly grim and depressing sci-fi slog that hops around without rhyme or reason, "Goodbye Earth" might be a fine choice. This is a revenge drama first and foremost, not some thrilling FX-heavy blockbuster brimming with CGI shots of hurtling cosmic debris and daring asteroid deflection missions . But for anyone afflicted with insomnia, this series just might be the antidote.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

Doctor Who 'Space Babies': Why is The Doctor alone in the universe?

Stephen Hawking Medal 2024 winners announced at star-studded Starmus VII festival

NASA's Juno probe captures fascinating high-resolution images of Jupiter's icy moon Europa

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for a... Read all Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

Josh Friedman
Amanda Silver
Owen Teague
Freya Allan
Kevin Durand
251 User reviews
184 Critic reviews
66 Metascore

Proximus Caesar

Honored Elder

Youngster #1

Youngster #2
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Making 'Apes' Feel Real

Did you know

Trivia Director Wes Ball 's pitch for the film was " Apocalypto (2006) with apes."
Goofs Despite being a bonobo, Proximus Caesar's design is clearly that of a regular chimpanzee.

Proximus Caesar : What a wonderful day!

Connections Featured in H-Cast: Insiders Expose Marvel! Blade Reboot, The Marvels & MORE! The H-Cast EP 78 (2023)
Soundtracks Thematic Material From Planet of the Apes (1968) Written by Jerry Goldsmith

User reviews 251

druss44121-1
May 10, 2024

New and Upcoming Sci-fi & Fantasy

When was Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes released? Powered by Alexa
May 10, 2024 (United States)
United States
20thcenturystudios
Planet of the Apes Ride
Helensburgh, New South Wales, Australia
Disney Studios Australia
Jason T. Reed Productions
Oddball Entertainment
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$160,000,000 (estimated)
$72,315,820
$58,400,788
May 12, 2024
$144,993,355

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 25 minutes
Dolby Digital
12-Track Digital Sound
Dolby Atmos
IMAX 6-Track
Dolby Surround 7.1

More to explore

Solar Storm Intensifies, Filling Skies With Northern Lights

Officials warned of potential blackouts or interference with navigation and communication systems this weekend, as well as auroras as far south as Southern California or Texas.

By Katrina Miller and Judson Jones

Katrina Miller reports on space and astronomy and Judson Jones is a meteorologist.

A dramatic blast from the sun set off the highest-level geomagnetic storm in Earth’s atmosphere on Friday that is expected to make the northern lights visible as far south as Florida and Southern California and could interfere with power grids, communications and navigations system.

It is the strongest such storm to reach Earth since Halloween of 2003. That one was strong enough to create power outages in Sweden and damage transformers in South Africa.

The effects could continue through the weekend as a steady stream of emissions from the sun continues to bombard the planet’s magnetic field.

The solar activity is so powerful that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors space weather, issued an unusual storm watch for the first time in 19 years, which was then upgraded to a warning. The agency began observing outbursts on the sun’s surface on Wednesday, with at least five heading in the direction of Earth.

“What we’re expecting over the next couple of days should be more significant than what we’ve seen certainly so far,” Mike Bettwy, the operations chief at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said at a news conference on Friday morning.

For people in many places, the most visible part of the storm will be the northern lights, known also as auroras. But authorities and companies will also be on the lookout for the event’s effects on infrastructure, like global positioning systems, radio communications and even electrical power.

While the northern lights are most often seen in higher latitudes closer to the North Pole, people in many more parts of the world are already getting a show this weekend that could last through the early part of next week.

Windmills against skies glowing pink, purple and green.

As Friday turned to Saturday in Europe, people across the continent described skies hued in a mottling of colors.

Alfredo Carpineti , an astrophysicist, journalist and author in North London, saw them with his husband from the rooftop of their apartment building.

“It is incredible to be able to see the aurora directly from one’s own backyard,” he said. “I was hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of green on the horizon, but it was all across the sky in both green and purple.”

Here’s what you need to know about this weekend’s solar event.

How will the storm affect people on Earth?

A geomagnetic storm watch or warning indicates that space weather may affect critical infrastructure on or orbiting near Earth. It may introduce additional current into systems, which could damage pipelines, railroad tracks and power lines.

According to Joe Llama, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory, communications that rely on high frequency radio waves, such as ham radio and commercial aviation , are most likely to suffer. That means it is unlikely that your cellphone or car radio, which depend on much higher frequency radio waves, will conk out.

Still, it is possible for blackouts to occur. As with any power outage, you can prepare by keeping your devices charged and having access to backup batteries, generators and radio.

The most notable solar storm recorded in history occurred in 1859. Known as the Carrington Event, it lasted for nearly a week, creating aurora that stretched down to Hawaii and Central America and impacting hundreds of thousands of miles of telegraph lines.

But that was technology of the 19th century, used before scientists fully understood how solar activity disrupted Earth’s atmosphere and communication systems.

“That was an extreme level event,” said Shawn Dahl, a forecaster at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. “We are not anticipating that.”

Unlike tornado watches and warnings, the target audience for NOAA’s announcements is not the public.

“For most people here on planet Earth, they won’t have to do anything,” said Rob Steenburgh, a space scientist at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

The goal of the announcements is to give agencies and companies that operate this infrastructure time to put protection measures in place to mitigate any effects.

“If everything is working like it should, the grid will be stable and they’ll be able to go about their daily lives,” Mr. Steenburgh said.

Will I be able to see the northern lights?

It is possible that the northern lights may grace the skies this week over places that don’t usually see them. The best visibility is outside the bright lights of cities.

Clouds or stormy weather could pose a problem in some places. But if the skies are clear, even well south of where the aurora is forecast to take place, snap a picture or record a video with your cellphone. The sensor on the camera is more sensitive to the wavelengths produced by the aurora and may produce an image you can’t see with the naked eye.

Another opportunity could be viewing sunspots during the daytime, if your skies are clear. As always, do not look directly at the sun without protection. But if you still have your eclipse glasses lying around from the April 8 event, you may try to use them to try to spot the cluster of sunspots causing the activity.

How strong is the current geomagnetic storm?

Giant explosions on the surface of the sun, known as coronal mass ejections, send streams of energetic particles into space. But the sun is large, and such outbursts may not cross our planet as it travels around the star. But when these particles create a disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field, it is known as a geomagnetic storm.

NOAA classifies these storms on a “G” scale of 1 to 5, with G1 being minor and G5 being extreme. The most extreme storms can cause widespread blackouts and damage to infrastructure on Earth. Satellites may also have trouble orienting themselves or sending or receiving information during these events.

The current storm is classified as G5, or “extreme.” It is caused by a cluster of sunspots — dark, cool regions on the solar surface — that is about 16 times the diameter of Earth. The cluster is flaring and ejecting material every six to 12 hours.

“We anticipate that we’re going to get one shock after another through the weekend,” said Brent Gordon, chief of the space weather services branch at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

Why is this happening now?

The sun’s activity ebbs and flows on an 11-year cycle, and right now, it is approaching a solar maximum. Three other severe geomagnetic storms have been observed so far in the current activity cycle, which began in December 2019, but none were predicted to cause effects strong enough on Earth to warrant a watch or warning announcement.

The cluster of sunspots generating the current storm is the largest seen in this solar cycle, NOAA officials said. They added that the activity in this cycle has outperformed initial predictions .

More flares and expulsions from this cluster are expected, but because of the sun’s rotation the cluster will be oriented in a position less likely to affect Earth. In the coming weeks, the sunspots may appear again on the left side of the sun, but it is difficult for scientists to predict whether this will cause another bout of activity.

“Usually, these don’t come around packing as much of a punch as they did originally,” Mr. Dahl said. “But time will tell on that.”

Jonathan O’Callaghan contributed reporting from London.

An earlier version of this article misstated the radio frequencies used by cellphones and car radios. They are higher frequencies, not low.

How we handle corrections

Katrina Miller is a science reporting fellow for The Times. She recently earned her Ph.D. in particle physics from the University of Chicago. More about Katrina Miller

Judson Jones is a meteorologist and reporter for The Times who forecasts and covers extreme weather. More about Judson Jones

What’s Up in Space and Astronomy

Keep track of things going on in our solar system and all around the universe..

Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other 2024 event that’s out of this world with our space and astronomy calendar .

A dramatic blast from the sun set off the highest-level geomagnetic storm in Earth’s atmosphere, making the northern lights visible around the world .

With the help of Google Cloud, scientists who hunt killer asteroids churned through hundreds of thousands of images of the night sky to reveal 27,500 overlooked space rocks in the solar system .

A celestial image, an Impressionistic swirl of color in the center of the Milky Way, represents a first step toward understanding the role of magnetic fields in the cycle of stellar death and rebirth.

Scientists may have discovered a major flaw in their understanding of dark energy, a mysterious cosmic force . That could be good news for the fate of the universe.

Is Pluto a planet? And what is a planet, anyway? Test your knowledge here .

IMAGES

Another Earth • Movie Review
ANOTHER EARTH
Film Review: Another Earth
Another Earth movie review & film summary (2011)
Another Earth (2011)
‎Another Earth (2011) directed by Mike Cahill • Reviews, film + cast

VIDEO

RESTART THE EARTH (2021)
Earth Is Destroyed And He's Looking Another Earth #shortfilms #story #animationshorts #shorts
Earth From Another Sun review\gameplay
Trailer: Another Earth
Another Earth
Instead of earth, they have plasticine😱😨 #movie #series

COMMENTS

Another Earth movie review & film summary (2011)
The other Earth idea is left as a fantastical hook and wisely not considered scientifically, except of course in its role as the film's master image. The relationship between Rhoda and John is seen as fraught with danger. The actors occupy their characters convincingly. They make us care more than the plot really requires.
Another Earth
Feb 20, 2021 Full Review Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com Another Earth is a magnificently visionary film. Rated: 3.5/4.0 Sep 2, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews Audience Reviews
'Another Earth,' With Brit Marling
Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi. PG-13. 1h 32m. By Manohla Dargis. July 21, 2011. At one point in "Another Earth," a coming-of-adulthood story that improbably blends a plaintive drama with romantic ...
Another Earth
Buried within Another Earth's framework is a wonderful sci-fi movie, but Cahill and Marling have unfortunately set it amongst this otherwise drab and predictable human drama. Full Review | Sep 8, 2013
Another Earth
The fourth is the guilty perpetrator of a (usually fatal) crime insinuating him or herself in the lives of the victim's family. In Another Earth, Rhoda, a drunken New England teenager, kills a ...
Another Earth (2011)
Another Earth: Directed by Mike Cahill. With Brit Marling, Matthew-Lee Erlbach, DJ Flava, William Mapother. On the night of the discovery of a duplicate Earth in the Solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident.
Another Earth (2011)
Winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film and the Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Mike Cahill's low-budget film, Another Earth, is a quietly beautiful meditation on guilt, redemption, and second chances. Though it has some implausible elements, it is so skillfully written and performed that these elements seem irrelevant.
Another Earth
In another earth, Rhoda Williams, a bright young woman accepted into MIT's astrophysics program, aspires to explore the cosmos. A brilliant composer, John Burroughs, has just reached the pinnacle of his profession and is about to have a second child. On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate earth, tragedy strikes and the lives of these strangers become irrevocably intertwined. (Fox Searchlight)
Movie Review
More than anything, though, Another Earth is an impressive calling card for Brit Marling, who wrote and produced the movie with Cahill, a classmate from Georgetown University. Marling also steals ...
Another Earth (2011)
Another Earth (2011) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more... Menu. Movies. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. ... Metacritic reviews. Another Earth. 66. Metascore. 33 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com. 100.
Movie review: 'Another Earth'
The intimate telling puts "Another Earth" in the tradition of humanistic sci-fi movies like John Carpenter's "Starman" and John Sayles "Brother From Another Planet."
Another Earth
Another Earth is a 2011 American science fiction drama film directed by Mike Cahill and starring Brit Marling, William Mapother, and Robin Lord Taylor.It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in January, and was given a limited theatrical release on July 22, 2011, by Fox Searchlight Pictures.The film earned two nominations at the 38th Saturn Awards for Marling's performance and for ...
ANOTHER EARTH: A Multidimensional Success
ANOTHER EARTH: A Multidimensional Success. February 17, 2021. Stephanie Archer. Stephanie Archer is 39 year old film fanatic living in…. There is magic in the art of indie film. A journey of exploration whose defined boxes of storytelling give way, warping and bending, allowing for emotional explorations and narrative oddities to fill the screen.
Another Earth review
And like Monsters, Another Earth introduces a great sci-fi concept that serves as a tantalising backdrop rather than a central premise. It asks what would happen if an identical copy of Earth ...
Another Earth Review
Another Earth Review. On the night news breaks of the discovery of a duplicate Earth, MIT student Rhoda (Marling) crashes her car, killing a family save music professor John Burroughs (Mapother ...
Another Earth
Another Earth - review. There's a good idea at the heart of this low-key sci-fi yarn about our 'mirror' planet, but unfortunately it doesn't really go anywhere. Peter Bradshaw. Thu 8 Dec 2011 16 ...
Another Earth
Mike Cahill's indie drama, about the existence of a second Earth, complete with parallel yous and alternative mes, is based on a great idea but shoots shy of the stars, says Xan Brooks (1) Poster ...
ANOTHER EARTH Official HD Trailer
In ANOTHER EARTH, Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling), a bright young woman accepted into MIT's astrophysics program, aspires to explore the cosmos. A brilliant co...
Movie Review: Another Earth (2011)
Marco wrote, directed and produced the feature film Within. He has lived in the Los Angeles area his whole life. Top 10 Favorite Movies: Fight Club, The Fountain, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Oldboy, Pulp Fiction, Children of Men, City of God, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Shawshank Redemption and Memento.Top 5 Favorite Directors: Spike Jonze, Darren Aronofsky, Alfonso Cuaron ...
Another Earth
Don't let this low-budget indie get crushed by the summer behemoths. Another Earth offers imagination and provocation to spare. By way of plot I'll say only this: Scientists have discovered a ...
Another Earth Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 1 ): Kids say ( 4 ): Marling and director Mike Cahill teamed up to write this screenplay, cleverly weaving a science-fiction element -- the concept of an alternate earth -- into the drama. That idea works beautifully, and it adds new layers of questions about who we are, our destiny, etc.
Another Earth • Movie Review
Movie Review Another Earth. February 14, 2012 By Søren Hough 10 Comments. On paper, Brit Marling's Another Earth has an intriguing premise revolving around the possibility of another Earth-like planet suddenly appearing in our sky. This planet is easily within communication distance to our own home world, and the possibilities for a high ...
The Last Thing I See: 'Another Earth' Movie Review
'Another Earth' Movie Review "Another Earth" starts off with an interesting enough, if completely ridiculous premise. Scientists have found a heretofore-unnoticed planet, an exact replica of Earth to be exact, hiding behind the moon, and the movie attempts to explore the impact this discovery has on the people of "Earth One".
'Dark Matter' review: Joel Edgerton stars in Blake Crouch's Apple
"Dark Matter" takes another plunge into the madness of multiverses, operating on a more cerebral and down-to-earth level than the superhero epics that have explored it, from the "Doctor ...
Netflix's asteroid-impact series 'Goodbye Earth' is an insufferably
The convoluted 12-episode series chronicles the final 200 days before Feb. 22, 2026, when a humongous (and fictional) asteroid named Dina is slated to slam into the Korean peninsula. South Korea ...
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Directed by Wes Ball. With Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon. Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
Northern Lights Are Visible as Solar Storm Intensifies: What to Know
For people in many places, the most visible part of the storm will be the northern lights, known also as auroras. But authorities and companies will also be on the lookout for the event's ...
Review: 'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes' Delivers A Glorious New Chapter
On the other hand, if previews and pre-sales wind up heavily front-loaded, that could result in a domestic weekend closer to $45 million territory, and similar international results would put it ...

Movie Reviews

Roger Ebert

Now playing

Evil Does Not Exist

Nothing Can't Be Undone by a HotPot

The Sympathizer

Star Wars -- Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Art College 1994

Mary & George

Another Earth (2011)

Directed by

Latest blog posts

Cannes 2024: Megalopolis, Bird, The Damned, Meeting with Pol Pot

Prime Video's Outer Range Opens Up in a Hole New Way in Season 2

The Ebert Fellows Go to Ebertfest 2024

Cannes 2024 Video #2: The Festival Takes Off

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Movies / TV

Another Earth Reviews

Another Chance At Life On 'Another Earth'

Watch Clips

Movie review: ‘Another Earth’

More to Read

In the sci-fi thriller ‘Dark Matter,’ Joel Edgerton battles through parallel worlds

Review: ‘3 Body Problem’ is an alien invasion story that doesn’t feel like a retread

Letters to the Editor: From ‘Idiocracy’ to ‘Star Trek,’ climate themes already abound in movies

More From the Los Angeles Times

Review: ‘IF,’ a movie about imaginary friends, requires suspension of disbelief — and a few more drafts

Defying the odds, Jeremy Renner marks a ‘glorious’ return with ‘Mayor of Kingstown’

Francis Ford Coppola teases ‘Godfather’ update, criticizes Hollywood studios at Cannes

The 15 movies you need to see this summer

ANOTHER EARTH: A Multidimensional Success

I SAW THE TV GLOW: We’re All Going To The Pink Opaque

NEW LIFE: That’s Not Ebola, Raymond

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS: A Fur Trapping Photoplay Of The Highest Order

Watching SPIDER-MAN 2 On The Big Screen For The First Time

CURL POWER: Strength In Unity

Horrific Inquiry: TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016)

THE BEAST: An Unnerving Collage of Henry James, Sci-Fi, and Angry Young Men

LIMBO: Out In The Open With Nowhere To Turn

FEMME: An Agressive Gay Revenge Film

HUMANE: Caitlin Joins The Cronenberg Family Business

STRESS POSITIONS & Interview With Theda Hammel & John Early

ISA TOP 25 SCREENWRITERS TO WATCH Interview With Kathryn Orwig

A Solid Beginning

Depth of Character

It’s all in the details

Conclusion: Another Earth

Watch Another Earth

Another Earth review

Another Earth Review

Related Articles

Today's paper

Another Earth

Our reviews

Poster notes: Another Earth

Today's best video

Film search

Sponsored feature

Movie Review: Another Earth (2011)

'Movie Review: Another Earth (2011)' has no comments

Another Earth

Peter Travers

Kevin Spacey Says #MeToo Movement 'Swung' Far in 'Unfairness' in Rare Interview Amid Allegations

Jake Gyllenhaal, Bowen Yang Serenade Sabrina Carpenter With 'Board Shorts Summer' in 'SNL' Teaser

‘The Big Cigar’ Is About Black Panthers Founder Huey P. Newton. But Its Real Message Is: ‘Hollywood, Fuck Yeah!’

'Shōgun': Two More Seasons (Potentially) in the Works

'Megalopolis': Francis Ford Coppola's Decades-Long Dream Project Is Truly Epic

Most Popular

Verify it's you

Or browse by category:

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Common Sense Selections for Games