An Earth-sized planet, bearing the exact blue-and-white swirls of our own globe, appears in the sky in writer/director Mike Cahill's Another Earth. It hovers there like an oversized moon, a mirror of our planet hanging in space. No explanation is offered for its presence, nor is any screen time devoted to scientific inevitabilities like gravitational impact—sure, the sudden materialization of an Earth-sized planet coming so close to our own would have cataclysmic effects, but that's not Cahill's point. Later in Another Earth, there's a scene in which a scientist establishes radio contact with the other planet, which people begin calling Earth Two. Through a fuzzy, squawking transmission, the scientist realizes, chillingly, that she is, in fact, talking to herself—a complete, alternate version of herself living on the planet that seems to be identical to Earth in every way. This is a terrific premise for a science-fiction film, but Another Earth isn't that film. Instead, it's just another standard indie drama, rendered in cool blues and arty-grainy video stock. by Ned Lannamann