"Melancholia" and "Another Earth": Two slow, weird, dark but powerful movies with almost the identical sci-fi idea

Just gotten around to watch both and I swear I only discovered this post the second I went on r/movies to post this. Which I guess is kinda ironic on multiple levels.

Anyway, Melancholia is a Lars von Trier movie about a newly discovered planet threatening to destroy earth. Another Earth is a movie about the discovery of a mirror earth identical to ours, directed by Mike Cahill, who I never heard of before but who I will keep an eye on from now on. Both movies are super dark and deal with themes of depression. The first half of Melancholia is essentially about the worst wedding ever while Another Earth is about a young woman dealing with having caused a car crash that killed a family. But then the planets show up... and put things into perspective.

IMO, they're both great.

It's just so weird to see such utterly random ideas pop up as movie plots within the same year. Usually, you could imagine this being due to movie execs jumping onto a trend (TV tropes warning!) but in this case, neither movie has ever been a box office hit contender. Both very slow indie movies with ultra niche audiences. Which is another thing they have in common.

I just saw both in a row, thinking I would be disappointed with one over the other but I was very positively surprised. It might not be very "hard" sci-fi, but the concepts are more interesting than most of the big budget action "sci"-fi blockbusters these days. Both are 70% drama with almost no connection to the planets but they treat the adventurous/scientific aspect with as much respect as possible considering the absurdity of the premise. Both offer an apocalyptic vision that differs from the "wasteland"/Mad Max scenarios that are essentially just thinly disguised adventure fantasies... those apocalypses feel real. Threatening, overwhelming. I'm trying hard not to spoil anything, but both movies have a couple of scenes that will send shivers down your spine, and it's not even an M Night twist, it's just you realizing just how eerie the idea really is.

If you are like me, having seen the two movies popping up on IMDB and whatnot, maybe even confused the two, unsure whether someone who likes science fiction can bare non-sci-fi directors attempting to do planetary discoveries, I can assure you, they're doing both scenarios great! Don't get me wrong, these are slow, dark, independent art movies. But they're also the most interesting sci-fi movies in years, IMO.