Fantastic Fest Review: The Antares Paradox

Over the past few decades, it feels like science fiction has been effectively replaced by post-apocalyptic cinema.

Any glimpse at our future that is science-based can only end in pandemics and disaster; the problems that plague society make it hard to look to the stars with anything other than wistful thinking. And while Luis Tinoco’s The Antares Paradox may struggle to do right by its main character, it’s still science rooted in hope, and that is a message that will resonate for many, many audiences.

Astrophysicist Alexandra Baeza (played by Andrea Trepat) has never been afraid to put her career before her family. Even when her father (Jaume de Sans) became ill, Baeza stuck to her mission: locating proof of life on other planets. But when she finally discovers a signal that might be proof of life in other solar systems, Baeza finds herself at the center of a perfect storm of personal and professional stressors. If she is to verify the signal, Baeza must risk her relationship with her family and the future of a million-dollar research facility.

As a single-location thriller with ties to Fantastic Fest, The Antares Paradox has earned comparisons to The Guilty, Gustav Möller’s 2018 feature that followed a failing police dispatcher in real-time. Like that film, Tinoco and company utilize a blend of filmmaking techniques to create an immersive environment for its single character. The production design is excellent – Spain’s SETI lab feels believably cobbled together – and the blend of phone conversations and video calls with the outside world adds a sense of scope to Baeza’s world outside of the laboratory.

For a while, the film also mimics the brutal competence of The Guilty. Over the first half-hour, Tinoco’s script takes great care to establish the fraying infrastructure of Baeza’s profession. Public funding is slowly drying up, and other universities are forced to rent equipment to private organizations to pay the bills. But each time Baeza picks up the phone, she is treated by colleagues worldwide with perplexing disdain or outright hostility. In flipping text for subtext – playing up interpersonal conflicts over structural challenges – The Antares Paradox loses much of the competency that is needed to sustain such a simple premise.

When Tinoco keeps the focus on Trepat, The Antares Paradox often shines. But the moment Baeza picks up the phone, the complexities of modern science are reduced to a series of underwhelming exchanges. Old rivals mock Baeza and then risk their careers to support her, with little-to-no development between outcomes. Personal connections also waver in their support of her sacrifices, with the biggest offender being her father’s nurse; we only meet her twice over the phone, but her reactions to Baeza’s plight can only be described as deeply unprofessional.

And that is the problem in a nutshell. The Antares Paradox promises to be a work of hard science fiction that unpacks the professional dangers of searching for life on other planets. Instead, the film treats Baeza as a STEM-based Ebenezer Scrooge, a detached careerist who learns empathy when forced to reconnect with her former colleagues. Tinoco and his crew deserve much credit for their production design and utilization of screenlife techniques to connect Baeza to the outside world. But in the end, the film can only offer the shallowest take on a fascinating subject matter.

---

The Antares Paradox

World Premiere

Follow all our coverage, news, reviews, and interviews at austinchronicle.com/fantastic-fest.