Submitted for your approval, two men sequestered in a “Biosphere” of their own creation, isolated from civilization, Beckett characters in a Pirandello parable of human evolution in a time of ecological crisis and existential disconnect due to ever-changing pronouns.

It’s a post-COVID, culture-poking satire with a “Twilight Zone” self-seriousness and “the future of the human race” as both food for thought and dangling punchline.

This minimalist dramedy is kind of the logical end game of the “mumblecore” talkathon comedies that the Duplas Brothers (“The Puffy Chair,” “Baghead”) helped pioneer. Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass co-star in “Biosphere,” and Mark Duplass co-wrote Mel Eslyn’s feature directing debut. It almost goes without saying that brothers Jay and Mark produced it.

I love those Duplass boys, and I’m a big fan of the esteemed Mister Brown. And as much as this movie serves up food for thought, I have to say I wish it was funnier, deeper and sharper.

It’s about what happens with human survival on the line, and all that’s left are two lifelong friends — one a scientist, the other a Yalie of the George W. Bush variety — in a self-sustaining geodesic dome.

The limits of friendship will be tested. Sort of. The shifting power dynamics of who is “contributing” more to their survival, as one is a multi-degree scientist and the other given to discourses on The Super Mario Bros, will come into play. Maybe.

“Lethal Weapon” will be viewed and “Jurassic Park” will be quoted.

And SOMEbody’s going to go through some changes and find himself grateful that the other fellow thought to keep a copy of “The New Our Bodies, Ourselves” on their bookshelves for this real-life/real-consequences “experiment” in whether humanity has what it takes to survive.

We drop in on Ray (Brown) and Billy (Duplass) mid-routine, their daily jog and chores. There’s not a lot of space in this habitat. And there’s a lot of darkness outside it. The vibe is a little “2001: A Space Odyssey,” a lot “Silent Running.”

Because this tale set in an isolated dome isn’t an isolation “experiment.” A calamity has come and these two — with limited but logical explanation — were here to witness it and endure, at least a while longer.

They joke, reminisce and bicker when the limitations of their living space become obvious.

“Maybe you should’ve built a better dome.” “Maybe if you’d done YOUR JOB we wouldn’t need to live in a dome!”

The death of the last female of their self-sustaining food-fish tank family rings their emotional alarm bells — “This is the end, this is reality time!” Only it isn’t the end.

Fish have figured out adaptation strategies. And when Billy turns sensitive, “stomach ache” prone and busty, they and we wonder if he’s just sick or if it’s Darwinian and if their lifelong conceptions of gender, procreation and the boundaries attached to masculine affection are about to get a work out.

Scientist Ray is ready to work the problem. Emotional Billy isn’t signing off on that.

“I have a DOCTORATE…”

“In bioCHEMISTRY!

The biodome as a dramatic/comic crucible for society and human nature and Earth ecology is older than Pauly Shore. The novelty here is the gender twist on what it takes to ensure human survival, that we EVOLVE, at least in an emotional and psychological sense.

I like what the movie bites off, and its timing seems right. Despite the homophobic outrage by a shrinking minority and the opportunistic politicians who pander to them, societal attitudes have been shifting in a steady cycle of fits and starts since the 1969 Stonewall Riots, whose anniversary is being observed as I write this review.

People have evolved, and the “hope” engendered by “Biosphere” is that there’s inevitability to that, and to human survival in the face of hate, violence and anti-science militancy.

As with any movie, what you get out of “Biosphere” is partly dependent on what you bring to it. But in this case, I think most of us inclined to go see it will be doing all its heavy lifting for it, as what’s here feels slight, incomplete and not nearly as funny, cute and deep as these folks seem to believe.

Rating: unrated, sexual situations, profanity

Cast: Sterling K. Brown, Mark Duplass.

Credits:Directed by Mel Eslyn scripted by Mark Duplass and
Mel Eslyn. An IFC release.

Running time: 1:46