At their core, and among other things, great documentaries draw viewers in by focusing on compelling subjects and structuring their stories in captivating ways. Whether that is achieved through clarity of narrative or an approach altogether abstract, going beyond your basic talking-head format is essential to distinguish a worthy doc among the thousands of films that seem to pop up on various streaming platforms on a daily basis. It would be reasonable, then, to expect Wild Wild Space, the latest from Academy Award-winning director Ross Kaufmann, to approach, meet, and/or even exceed these expectations, but unfortunately, much like the Astra Space rockets featured in the film, it fails to reach orbit.
Inspired by Ashlee Vance’s book When the Heavens Went on Sale, Kaufmann’s film follows three companies — Astra Space, Rocket Lab, and Planet Labs — as they vie for dominance of Low Earth Orbit. Each company is trying to be the leader in satellites, the next frontier of space that will change how technology affects our lives. But most immediately damning is that the entrepreneurs featured in the film are portrayed as little more than caricatures of stereotypical space businessmen (think Elon Musk but… less). Chris Kemp, CEO of Astra Space, founded several startups in Silicon Valley before creating this company with the goal of getting to space on the cheap. Peter Beck, of Rocket Lab, had a similar goal, but where Kemp is more of your standard issue Silicon Valley tech bro, Beck is your nerdy New Zealander with contempt for Astra Labs’ “shitty” approach to building rockets. Will Marshall of Planet Labs, a company that creates very small satellites at a fraction of typical costs, lands somewhere between the two as a “character,” a methodical and passionate man who plays a more minor role in the film’s construction, likely because Kauffman doesn’t entice any sort of personality out of him that would lend dramatic weight. In fact, there’s little more narrative propulsion and established stakes here than one would encounter while quickly skimming a Wikipedia article on the subject.
At its core, Wild Wild Space is an attempt to explore the origins and evolutions of these companies and their founders, showcasing trials and triumphs over the last decade of advancements. Indeed, this aim to showcase the battleground of Low Earth Orbit could be considerably intriguing in theory, but it’s presented in such a flattened, pro forma manner that only those with an outsized interest in the subject are going to be perk up; the whole thing reads like an exsanguinated summary of what is surely a more compelling book. And while the film captures the double-edged sword of technological advancement, that perpetual precipice where innovation can both help and harm humanity, it does so in a way that feels more like disjointed corporate documentation than a cohesive story worth following. Particularly in comparison to other recent space documentaries like The Longest Goodbye or The Space Race that have risen above the standard NatGeo, made-for-TV doc format, Wild Wild Space falls short of that most basic requirement to do something different than simply asking faces to talk at a camera for 90 minutes.
DIRECTOR: Ross Kauffman; CAST: Ashlee Vance, Will Marshall, Pete Worden; DISTRIBUTOR: Max; STREAMING: July 17; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 35 min.
