In Jurassic Park, the line “Life finds a way” is a repeated refrain. It elegantly summarizes the folly of a dinosaur theme park: even with strict biological control, previously extinct animals can adapt and evolve. The new sci-fi film Biosphere is a riff on the same idea, but while dinosaurs are the exclusive purview of Jurassic Park, director and co-writer Mel Eslyn apply “Life finds a way” to the last two men on earth (who even refer to Spielberg’s beloved classic). The result is a clever, funny exploration of friendship and gender that also does not shy away from the drama of its unlikely premise.
The last two men are Billy (Mark Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown). In the opening minutes, we learn about their dynamics and back story. They are childhood friends, ending up in the biosphere because Billy was President of the United States, then hired Ray as a scientific advisor. We do not know what calamity befell the planet, except that Billy openly admits it is his fault. More importantly, outside the thick glass of the biosphere they see only blackness. Within the biosphere, which is about the size of a basketball court, the pair try and maintain some measure of routine, fitness, and sanity. Duplass co-wrote the film with Eslyn, and his familiar voice – unaffected and jocular – helps add credibility to the material.
Shortly after our introduction, Billy and Ray have a major crisis. They are down to their last fish, their only sustainable source of food and protein. Assuming the worst, Billy starts preparing for death, while Ray assures him that they will find a way through this emergency. The solution happens by accident: somehow the fish mutates and starts to produce eggs without a biological partner. Billy and Ray are thrilled, but when Ray explains the scientific detail, Billy makes a startling realization: his body is mutating just like the fish. It is at this point that Biosphere veers away from sci-fi and more toward fantasy. Billy grows female genitalia, and becomes capable of bearing children.
Duplass and Eslyn know the premise is physically impossible, and to their credit, they do not try and explain it. Instead, Biosphere accepts Billy’s metamorphosis as a given, then considers how it might change the dynamic between the two men. Biosphere shares DNA with Junior, the Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy where a man becomes pregnant, and mumblecore Duplass classic Hump Day. Now that Billy is intersex and can hypothetically get pregnant, should he and Ray try to make a baby? They’re both straight, so how would that even work? In performances that mix vulnerability with comedy, Brown and Duplass fumble their way toward the year’s most unlikely sex scene, one that finds room for tenderness.
What elevates the material is how Duplass and Eslyn’s script use all the dialogue to develop the relationship between the two characters. Even incidental conversation, like arguments over a Super Mario game, add thematic resonance. Eslyn also uses the limited setting to her advantage: the biosphere does not look high tech, more cobbled together, a sneaky way to suggest the long history these men share. There are also infrequent special effects, so instead Eslyn relies on sound design to conjure feelings of comfort or terror. Although Biosphere could conceivably function as a stage play, thoughtful camera placement and careful editing mean the whole endeavor is dynamic, never boring.
A major part of that thoughtful camera placement is how Eslyn barely turns her lens on Billy’s changing body. All that information happens via dialogue, and allows the viewer to accept the unlikely premise more easily. Once the characters buy their reality, then so do we, and while their conflict goes in predictable directions, there are some curveballs as well. Biosphere is about more than how life finds a way. It is also about friendship, and the difficulty of unlearning our deepest bigotries. As a cross between a buddy comedy and a thought experiment, it is perhaps inevitable the film ends on an ambiguous note. Maybe the lack of resolution would be annoying in a lesser film, but Duplass/Eslyn have the wherewithal to build toward it the moment their characters – who are depressed and yearn for hope – start breaking the last barriers they share.
Photo courtesy of IFC Films
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