Sundance Review: ALIENS ABDUCTED MY PARENTS AND NOW I KINDA FEEL LEFT OUT Is a Silly, Fun Movie
After watching big a disturbing and jacked-up horror movie at Sundance that I couldn’t get out of my head, I wanted to watch something a little more lighthearted and fun, so I went to a movie on the festival’s kid’s program titled, Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Kinda Feel Left Out.
I knew nothing about the movie, I just went to it based on the title and thought it may be an enjoyable film. I was expecting something silly, and that’s exactly what I got, but this being Sundance I figured it must be a decent-quality film. After all, they only picked 99 movies out of thousands of submissions.
Well, the movie started out interesting but then devolved into a complete mess of a movie. I know it is supposed to be a kids movie, but I’ve seen better made-for-TV movies on the Nickelodeon and Disney channels. You’re telling me that out of all these thousands of submissions, this actually made it into this prestigious film festival? It confuses me. Now, it did have some enjoyable wacky moments, but I don’t know how it got into Sundance. Low bar for kids movies, maybe?
Anyway, the movie starts out with a young boy hanging out with his dad on the roof of their house with a telescope waiting for a comet to streak across the sky. His dad leaves to go take care of something, and while he’s out there’s a strange occurrence. The kid goes looking for his parents, but can’t find them. As he’s looking for them in a panic, he sees a UFO take off into the sky and realizes his parents have been abducted by aliens.
The film cuts to several years later. The boy is a teenager and as the comet is about to return again. He believes his parents will show back up and that he will join them on their space adventure.
It’s at this time in the boy’s life that a new family moves into town and he becomes friends with their teen daughter, who is an aspiring journalist and is not happy about the move into this small town in the middle of nowhere.
The synopsis reads: “Teenage aspiring journalist Itsy is miserable when her family moves to the small town of Pebble Falls. Among the new challenges — a fixer-upper house and unfriendly high schoolers, to name a few — Itsy meets Calvin, her strange, space-obsessed neighbor and classmate. Itsy befriends Calvin in hopes of writing an exposé on the oddball for a summer internship back in New York City, but she soon discovers that the amateur astronaut has an out-of-this-world secret. Calvin believes his parents were abducted by aliens, and it’s his mission to find and join them in outer space. As they endeavor to uncover the truth, the pair of outsiders foster a surprising and heartwarming friendship.”
While I don’t have an issue with the story, the execution of it was kind of messy. There were so many things about how the story played out that didn’t make any sense to me and the way the relationships with the characters developed was so frustrating to me! A kids movie shouldn’t be frustrating to watch! So, while there might be an audience for this, it just wasn’t for me.
The movie was directed by Jake Van Wagoner (Christmas Time, Studio C) and this how the festival describes the film: “A lighthearted yet touching family narrative set against the backdrop of the beautiful Utah landscape, Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out is a story about embracing what makes us different, finding belonging, and staying true to yourself. Suitable for kids (and aliens) of all ages” The movie stars Emma Tremblay, Jacob Buster, Will Forte, Elizabeth Mitchell, Kenneth Cummins, and Matt Biedel.
You’ll just have to watch it yourself one day and form your own opinion about it.
