In recent times Grizzly Man helmer Werner Herzog has done his best work in documentaries – not that he accepts the term. The German maverick’s the first to admit he will fabricate scenes in the service of “higher truth”, which makes this “science fiction fantasy”.
After Brad Dourif’s extraterrestrial from Andromeda recounts a secret NASA expedition to establish a colony in an outer galaxy, The Wild Blue Yonder stitches footage from the Space Shuttle, images from the Galileo probe, interviews with NASA scientists and material shot by divers near Antarctica. It’s a long, strange trip, alternately banal and visionary.