--- title: The Midnight Sky Is Occasionally Poetic and Often Boring description: George Clooney directs and stars in a glum science-fiction film that has moments of poetic moodiness and one great performance. canonical: https://time.com/5922669/midnight-sky-review-netflix/ author: Stephanie Zacharek article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-12-23T11:00:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:55:30.359Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The Midnight Sky Is Occasionally Poetic and Often Boring og:description: But George Clooney's new Netflix sci-fi drama features one truly terrific performance og:url: https://time.com/5922669/midnight-sky-review-netflix/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a720bf2705ffbaf/698a157322fb8572b9e2bbd7/MS_20191212_10012-rt_f.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Midnight Sky og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Midnight Sky Is Occasionally Poetic and Often Boring twitter:description: But George Clooney's new Netflix sci-fi drama features one truly terrific performance twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a720bf2705ffbaf/698a157322fb8572b9e2bbd7/MS_20191212_10012-rt_f.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _The Midnight Sky_ Is Occasionally Poetic and Often Boring—But It Features One Truly Terrific Performance > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Dec 23, 2020 11:00 AM UTC  George Clooney and Caoilinn Springall on a perilous journey at the end of the world George Clooney and Caoilinn Springall on a perilous journey at the end of the worldNetflix  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Dec 23, 2020 11:00 AM UTC Sometimes a downer of a movie can make you feel a little better about life, serving as a reminder that things aren’t as bad as they could be. _The Midnight Sky,_ a [glum science-fiction](https://time.com/4960648/science-fiction-utopian-novels-books/) reverie directed by [George Clooney](https://time.com/4920700/george-clooney-on-babies/)—and based on Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel _Good Morning, Midnight_—may serve that function for some people. At its best, the film shimmers with a thoughtful, poetic moodiness. At its worst, it’s pretty damn slow. But Clooney—who also stars, as a crabby, obsessive scientist bearing the comically hifalutin name Augustine Lofthouse—is at the very least a thoughtful filmmaker, and _The Midnight Sky_ is made with obvious care. What’s more, he’s modest enough to make himself a fairly muted presence, allowing his supporting players to shine. As _The Midnight Sky_ opens, a [cataclysmic event](https://time.com/62074/a-7-step-guide-for-rebooting-civilization-after-the-apocalypse/)—it goes unnamed and undescribed, a spooky touch—has destroyed most of the Earth’s population. Nearly every inhabitant of an Arctic scientific-research station has evacuated in advance of encroaching danger, but grizzle-bearded Augustine, who is gravely ill, has stayed behind. His passion has always been seeking out new planets that might prove sustainable to Earthlings, though his devotion to science is so dogged that he’s had little use for actual human beings. But as life on Earth, including his own, slouches toward an end, he feels bound to warn a returning space-exploration crew that they’re better off staying in space. The signal at the station isn’t powerful enough to reach them; he must set out in the frigid cold for another base, miles away, that might have a stronger antenna. The twist is that although he believes he’s alone at his deserted outpost, a stowaway suddenly appears, a young girl who hasn’t gone off with the others. She doesn’t speak, but the two learn to communicate, and grudging affection ensues. Augustine learns that the girl’s name is Iris. (She’s played by Caoilinn Springall.) Together, the two set off on their perilous journey. Meanwhile, we learn a little more about that ship, the _Aether,_ and its crew, Adewole (David Oyelowo), Sully ([Felicity Jones](https://time.com/4450497/rogue-one-star-wars-story-felicity-jones-jyn-erso-unlikely-heroine/)), Sanchez (Demián Bichir), Mitchell ([Kyle Chandler](https://time.com/3735985/kyle-chandler-netflix-bloodline-friday-night-lights/)) and Maya (Tiffany Boone), the least experienced of those aboard. The scenes aboard the _Aether_ have a kind of lost-in-space cozy warmth, and it becomes easy to see these astronauts as individuals with deeply human anxieties and longings. Sanchez is especially fond of sweet Maya, who reminds him of his daughter. Sully is pregnant, and though she seems perfectly cool with the idea of having a tiny human being inside her while she’s floating around in nowheresville, Jones’ aura of no-nonsense practicality suggests she knows how high the stakes are. Best of all is Chandler as the deeply homesick Mitchell: in one scene, he has breakfast with his family, rendered as holograms—they chat and laugh and flutter around him, as he sits there eating his sad bowl of space oats. Mitchell’s heartsickness is like a spirit-ghost that sticks close by him, so intense you can almost see it. Chandler, always a wonderful actor, takes this small role and turns in [one of the finest performances of the year](https://time.com/5915528/best-movie-performances-2020/), tucked into a movie that doesn’t measure up to him.  Kyle Chandler as Mitchell, an astronaut missing home Philippe Antonello/NETFLIX—© 2020 NETFLIX, INC. Clooney certainly cares a lot about every project he takes on. As a director, maybe he sometimes even cares too much. His overly cerebral approach can result in seriously unleavened movies (like the dirty-politics parable _The Ides of March,_ from 2011), though a less conscientious guy couldn’t have made the elegant, fiery _Good Night, and Good Luck_ (2005), an account of journalist Edward R. Murrow’s tireless battle to bring down anti-Communist crusader Joseph McCarthy. In _The Midnight Sky,_ Clooney’s portrayal of Augustine has a great deal of somber dignity; he’s brainy all right, but with none of the groovy jauntiness of the astronaut Clooney played in Alfonso Cuaron’s [_Gravity_](https://time.com/82295/gravity-director-toasts-future-generations/)_._ Clooney is both a fine actor and an immensely charismatic presence. But even if he has every right to take on grave, serious-minded roles, there’s something dispiriting about seeing him as a forlorn, graying, beaten-down survivor, a brilliant scientist left alone to ponder the mess he’s made of his personal life—albeit with a tiny sprig of hope at the movie’s end. But maybe Augustine’s purpose is to cheer us up in a perverse way. Our lives could be worse; we could be _him,_ a sad-sack scientist who looks like a woodcarving in a medieval cathedral, or a bummed-out Santa who’s let himself go. This is George Clooney, bona fide movie star, at the close of 2020\. Maybe the end of the world really is upon us. 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