As previously covered, “Stowaway” had its world-premiere on Netflix this Thursday in every country of the world except for Germany (for whatever reason, thank you very much). While this means I haven’t been able to watch it myself, my friend Jess has helped me out with screencaptures from the film for us all to enjoy. Thanks so much for this wonderful contribution.

Upon its April 22 release around the world (minus Germany) on Netflix, reviews from all outlets have been released – all praising the film’s cast and story approach – with quite a few criticising its slow-paced storytelling. A selection of reviews have been collected below. New production stills, on-set pictures and posters have been added to the photo gallery as well. There has been a virtual press junket for the film, but Toni didn’t attend, so unfortunately no promotional material this time.

TIME, Stephanie Zacharek (April 23, 2021)
Collette has little to do beyond look at first annoyed, and then resigned, and then anguished by her responsibilities – but Collette, who can do anything, ultimately makes us feel the weight of the latter. Stowaway pulls plenty of pages from the generic space-movie handbook, but it still builds a mood of dread and contemplative ennui, finding its resolution in a final, somber shot.

The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck (April 22, 2021)
Stowaway is more confined and claustrophobic than most films of its type, set entirely aboard the confines of a spaceship and featuring but four characters. That there are four rather than three proves the springboard for the tense scenario in which a crew, manning a rocket bound for Mars, discovers an interloper. For all its thematic heft, however, Stowaway sometimes feels too restrained for its own good. There are times during the extremely slow-paced and talky proceedings that you’ll find yourself desperately wishing for an alien to burst out of somebody’s chest.

Vulture, Bilge Ebiri (April 23, 2021)
Penna keeps the film focused on the people: Each member of the crew responds to the situation differently, and there’s power in watching their differing personalities clash. The cast keeps things admirably grounded as well. Kendrick’s earnestness plays off against Kim’s practicality. Collette, the queen of reaction shots, looks on and mulls her options in gathering horror, anxiety, and despair. Anderson strikes a touching balance between guilt, disbelief, and sorrow. The film’s central tension, between hand-wavingly vague science and the contagious immediacy of the characters’ emotions, becomes most pronounced during the final act, which is somehow both impressively suspenseful and frustratingly confusing. Still, Stowaway is never boring, even as it leaves you with a million unanswered space questions.

The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey (April 22, 2021)
Collette, who makes rare use of her native Australian accent, is especially good. There’s a hardness to her performance that speaks not to cruelty, but to a knowledge that the price of leadership is often some small chunk of humanity.

RogerEbert.com, Christy Lemire (April 22, 2021)
Penna portrays the increasing feeling of doom not with histrionics and a hyperbolic score but rather through long tracking shots and muffled bits of conversation in faraway corridors. As in “Arctic,” he’s wise enough to let his actors convey so much of what their characters are experiencing though their faces: subtle expressions of disappointment, anguish, fear. One call in particular to ground control reveals Collette’s ability to balance the truth of Marina’s anxiety while sounding poised and capable to the folks on the other end about options.

Netflix has released the official Stowaway trailer for their upcoming sci-fi survival thriller film, starring Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson and Oscar nominee Toni Collette. The video features a three-man crew as they embark on a space mission to Mars. However, things don’t go as smoothly as they prepared for when they discover a stranger has accidentally boarded their ship. The film will be available for streaming on April 22, exclusively on Netflix. This project is Collette’s latest collaboration with the streaming service, who have worked together on 2018’s Wanderlust, 2019’s critically acclaimed Unbelievable and last year’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. She is also set to star in Netflix’s upcoming thriller drama series titled Pieces of Her which is based on Karin Slaughter’s novel of the same name. On a mission headed to Mars, an unintended stowaway accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship’s life support systems. Facing dwindling resources and a potentially grim outcome, a medical researcher emerges as the only dissenting voice against the clinical logic of both her commander and the ship’s biologist. The film is directed by Joe Penna from a screenplay he co-wrote with frequent collaborator Ryan Morrison. Penna and Morrison previously worked together on the filmmaker’s feature directorial debut titled Arctic, which first debuted at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The upcoming Netflix film has some similarities with the Mads Mikkelsen-led film as they both deal with the themes of survival and sacrifice.

“A production designer once told me, ‘never do a movie in a submarine or in space,'” Anna Kendrick recalls. She defied that warning, however, to make Stowaway, the galactic sci-fi thriller from director Joe Penna (Arctic) headed to Netflix on April 22. “It was so simple and so lean, but totally compelling,” Kendrick tells EW of her initial reaction to Penna and Ryan Morrison’s taut script, which inspired her to enter the cosmos despite that well-intentioned warning. The actress stars as Zoe, a medical researcher on a spaceship headed to Mars on a two-year mission. On board with her are the ship’s commander (Toni Collette) and a biologist (Daniel Dae Kim) — and an unexpected stowaway (Shamier Anderson), whom the crew find trapped inside the ship shortly into their mission. With the small craft outfitted only to support three passengers and some irreparable damage done to its life support systems, the crew faces an impossible problem, which only Zoe believes they can solve. “I had never really read anything like it,” adds Collette. “It is contained and the characters are confined but the questions posed, moral and otherwise, are vast and wide open.” While the concept of being trapped in a tiny space may resonate after a year in quarantine, “it’s ultimately about community, survival, and sacrifice,” Collette points out. “Who can’t relate to that at the moment?” For Kendrick, “the thing that feels really relevant is less the isolation of it and more that kind of problem-solving part of your brain that we were all engaging so vigorously in the first couple months of the pandemic,” she says. “Just that constant problem-solving of, ‘wait, okay, how do we fix this?’ And just when it seems like you’re onto something, there’s some very obvious fundamental problem.” The complete interview with Anna Kendrick and Toni Collette can be read over at Entertainment Weekly.

Kids love the live-action educational show Odd Squad, and the parents of those kids are in for a treat the week of January 18, when Oscar-nominated actress Toni Collette guest stars on the Emmy-winning PBS Kids program. According to Fatherly, from Fred Rogers Productions, and targeted to viewers ages 6-9, Odd Squad follows young secret agents who aim to save the day using math when odd things occur, and their talents are really put to the test when Toni Collette arrives on the scene as a mysterious new villain called The Sand Queen. Fatherly is pleased to share an exclusive clip that features Collette joyfully chewing the scenery as The Sand Queen cackles madly, unleashes swirls of sand, tries to outrun the heroes in a funhouse, and uses a potato sack to ride down a slide. Collette never seems to play the same role twice, as evidenced by credits spanning from Muriel’s Wedding, The Sixth Sense, and I’m Thinking of Ending Things to About a Boy, Knives Out, and Unbelievable. Her previous family-friendly fare – including The Magic Pudding, The Boxtrolls, and Blinky Bill The Movie – has been of the animated variety. Whatever the reason Collette signed on, we’re excited to see her summon the sand – and the fun – on Odd Squad. You can watch a preview clip below, pictures have been added to the photo gallery.

The great joy of running a fansite/archive is to come across a rare video or appearance that I have never seen, or, even better, never even knew existed. Such is the case for this 1996 video of baby-faced Toni and Ben Mendelsohn promoting their film “Cosi” on the Australian talkshow “Hey Hey It’s Saturday”. If found the video courtesy a wonderful fansite on Mr. Mendelsohn, which you should pay a visit :-) The appearance can be found in the video archive, screencaptures have been added to the photo gallery.