Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: THE ANTARES PARADOX [Fantastic Fest 2022 - Austin,Texas]
Creating a taut thriller in one room is a tricky process especially in how the tension can be built up while still being resonant and not overtly expensive. “The Antares Paradox” does an interesting job with creating this feeling then slowly tightening the noose without having to resort to anything foolhardy or extreme...just the story and a couple flourishes. This sequence of events is bathed in choice and while the choices made are heavy handed and subject to the whims of human behavior, it keeps itself in check even though it seems the lead character might simply break (which could happen). Andrea Trepat plays Alexandra, a SETI scientist based in Spain (the film is in Spanish) at a small observatory who slaves away getting paid very little to search the night sky for signs of alien radio transmissions. The approach is not unlike the journey of Eleanor Arroway in “Contact” with the same doggedness of mind and stubbornness. This approach also has the familial aspect (used for motivation in “Contact”) in a different context but still remains all the more mortal. “Antares” actually draws it out in a certain way but the way it is interrelated correlates more to inter-human relations like “Interstellar” and the messages that showed although in real time.
These scenes create an immediacy even as Alexandra is rushing against all her detractors trying to prove something nobody wants to hear. The film keeps up the tension because of the timing needed, the vise of different problems heaping on Alexandra from all sides from alignment to the dish wind alerts to her boss coming down on her from afar to former colleagues not willing to help her to her own sanity and sense of self. And during all this time she is working through protocols to verify whether the source of the tranmission is valid. The writer/director (Luis Tunico) smart;ly uses just a small amount of scale (and from inside the complex) to give the sense of where Alexandra is but not overplay the hand or make it any more complicated. The film works because it is in the pressure cooker of the one room. It is a closed story of the process of this one night which plays more like a short story in a bigger narrative that the viewer can create in their mind. Trepat carries the film admirably having to shift between emotional scenes and technical elements without getting too bogged down in either while still making it grounded and human. “The Antares Paradox” is a beautiful feat of condensed budget, effective scripts and a great solo performance down to the very end that does not disappoint. A-
By Tim Wassberg
