In this month’s picks, multidimensional comedy and extraterrestrial drama.

‘The Silent Planet’

Setting a film in a desolate, empty world might have inspired some directors to go big with the vistas. Instead, Jeffrey St. Jules’s feature has a claustrophobically tight focus (though he does squeeze in good location shots of Newfoundland). Theodore (Elias Koteas) has been on his own for a long time, sentenced to working alone on a planet-size penal colony. During the day he mines ore that’s then sent to Earth; at night he watches sitcoms in his small habitat.