The Big Picture

Jérémy Clapin’s
Meanwhile on Earth
is a haunting science fiction film both vast in emotion and intimate in scope.
A nuanced performance by Megan Northman and great technical elements create a uniquely stunning experience.
Even with shaky storytelling, the film culminates in an evocative ending that blends animation with reality, touching on sacrifice and pain.

If we were to come into contact with beings from another world, what would we feel? Would we become taken over by fear over the realization that we are not alone? Or would we be struck by wonder over the possibility that there is more out there beyond our understanding? In writer-director Jérémy Clapin’s Meanwhile on Earth, a haunting science fiction film that feels in conversation with everything from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Under the Skin, the experience of coming into contact with extraterrestrials captures all this and more. This is a film that thrives in the way a small corner of the world in France, where a family is dealing with a loss, becomes expanded into something vast in emotional and thematic scope. It’s about what comes after someone is gone and what we would be willing to do to get them back. There is an alien invasion of sorts taking hold, but there is not much in the way of genre spectacle à la recent series like Constellation or Invasion. Centrally, it’s about how the shattering forces of loss and disconnection are the most perilous forces bearing down on the characters. Even when the film occasionally narrows and ends up in a corner that it must write its way out of, everything arrives at a quietly audacious conclusion.

Meanwhile on Earth (2024) Elsa, a 23-year-old woman, struggles with the mysterious disappearance of her brother Franck during his space mission three years ago. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she receives a message from an unknown life form claiming it can bring Franck back to Earth. As she delves deeper, Elsa faces dark and troubling forces, testing her resolve and love for her brother.Release Date September 13, 2024 Director Jérémy Clapin Cast Megan Northam , Sébastien Pouderoux , Dimitri Doré , Catherine Salée , Sam Louwyck Runtime 89 Minutes Main Genre Sci-Fi Writers Jérémy Clapin Distributor(s) Metrograph Pictures Expand

What Is ‘Meanwhile on Earth’ About?

The film begins with a gentle yet gorgeous animated sequence that shifts perfectly into live action where we meet Elsa, played by the magnificent relative newcomer Megan Northman, as she goes to her job working at a retirement home with her mother. Even as she one day hopes to become a graphic novelist, frequently sketching the people that she sees in her notebook, the loss of her brother, Franck, throws everything into chaos. He was on a mission in space and disappeared, leaving his family with no closure. There is a statue in his honor in town, but Elsa has a complicated relationship with the memorial, going from rebelliously leaving her mark on it in one moment to driving endlessly around it in another.

Her family, who are attempting to process his disappearance in largely unspoken ways, have settled into the rhythms of life as best as they can. Much like this year’s underrated Animalia, we get to see the textures of everyday life before the sci-fi hook comes to pull us away into another world entirely. Specifically, a new upheaval will come for Elsa when she begins hearing Franck’s voice late one night. She is then informed that there are beings who have her brother and, as they tell her through an earpiece that fuses itself to her, she must bring people to them at a specific point in the forest so they can take over their bodies. In exchange, she may get Franck back, but this will come at a heavy cost.

Though there is perhaps some small question early on about how much of this is actually happening and how much is driven by Elsa’s desperate desire to find her brother, it soon becomes clear that this is indeed real. Any argument to the contrary would have to ignore several striking scenes where we see how it is that this swap all plays out. Still, that isn’t to say there aren’t painful, even sinister, questions that the film doesn’t provide explicit answers to. There are moments of gruesome, bloody violence that approach being something closer to outright body horror before coming back down to being a more grounded drama about loss. The film revels in these complications as Elsa’s art and the way she interprets the disappearance of her brother ends up being expressed through the animation that is scattered throughout. Though they are more simple, black-and-white drawings that mimic the sketches she draws, they’re up there with the best of the year. Just two people talking together as the beauty and terror of space stretches out before them through a window takes the breath away.

‘Meanwhile on Earth’ Is an Often Stunning Work of Science Fiction

Even for those who are familiar with Clapin’s previous feature, the astounding animated film I Lost My Body, the way he shifts between different styles and forms here makes for a uniquely stunning experience. Though the moments of live-action aren’t quite as consistently impactful as the animation, the fact that it boasts beautiful cinematography by Robrecht Heyvaert, who also shot this year’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die, ensures that it still draws you in. This is further given life by the spectacular score by Dan Levy, who also previously did great work on I Lost My Body, which sneaks up on you with how devastating and eerie it is. The story itself that all of this technical excellence hangs itself on can be a little shaky in bursts, with one moment where a decision is reversed in a rather rushed way taking away from the emotional impact, but the ending is where it all comes together just before everything is about to fall apart.

Even as there is a tragic inevitability that hangs over the film, that only makes the way all the pieces come together in the end that much more of a punch to the gut. While it is clear that Meanwhile on Earth is a metaphor for grieving, it also becomes much more than that when we see how Elsa’s ultimate salvation does not come without sacrifice. Nothing is cloying or reductive about how it grapples with her pain. Much of this comes from just how nuanced a performer Northman is, with the way doubt can break through the strong face her character has attempted to put forth carrying just as much weight as a closing confession in a car where her hurt comes tumbling out. However, it is also the way loss can strip us of what we thought we knew about ourselves and leave us wandering through life without anything to hold us down. The way the closing sequence juxtaposes the animation with reality is as joyous as it is heartbreaking. That we go on two final journeys, each side by side, and get a glimpse of the simple beauty of the world a couple more times only makes the fact that it can all slip away in the blink of an eye that much more resonant when it counts. Though we get one more look out in the vast reaches of space and all that it holds beckoning us on, meanwhile on Earth we can be glad that those like Clapin are creating cinema like this.

REVIEW Meanwhile on Earth (2024) Jérémy Clapin’s Meanwhile on Earth is a mesmerizing work of science fiction with a magnificent performance by Megan Northman.ProsMegan Northman gives a nuanced performance, capturing a wide range of emotions in every move she makes.The cinematography by Robrecht Heyvaert draws you in and the score by Dan Levy sneaks up you with how devastating it is.Everything builds to an evocative ending that ties all of the pieces together in stunning fashion. ConsSome of the storytelling can a little shaky, occasionally undercutting the full emotional impact that it could have.

Meanwhile on Earth screened at the Fantasia Film Festival and will release in theaters in the U.S. on September 13.