Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: ALIENS ABDUCTED MY PARENTS AND NOW I FEEL KINDA LEFT OUT [Make Believe Film Festival 2023 - Seattle, Washington - Remote]

The context of abandonment and dealing with issues of loss in that context is territory that can work with an interesting sense of foreboding or awe depending on the build of the movie it's in. With "Aliens Abducted My Parents And Now I Kinda Feel Left Out", the film tries to create a fun if slightly odd tale of a young man coming to terms with his own psychosis with a bigger story in the mix involving possible aliens. While there are odes to "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" and perhaps a little bit of "Flight Of The Navigator", the sense of loss that Calvin (Jacob Buster) feels is not really combustible or life changing, despite a trauma earlier in life. A similar path might be to look at "Lars & The Real Girl" in terms of Jacob's balance of reality. His aspect of space and dressing up in a spaceman outfit is sort of abstract but also blurs the line of his underlying beliefs. The tone of the film is very upbeat but, despite this, really lacks a sense of wonder.

Emma Tremblay as Itsy is the viewpoint through which we see the movie. Her motivation like some of the characters in the similarly themed "Key & Locke" on Netflix is about escaping from a town that she deems backwards before finding out that what she wants and needs is all in her backyard. Some of the sequence (including a road trip) stretch credability a little bit. When Elizabeth Mitchell (of "Lost" notoriety) enters the frame, the film finally takes on a weight but shifts it away from the tone (albeit in a good way) that is seems focused on trying to establish. On the reverse, a standout is Kenneth Cummins as Evan, Itsy's brother who steals every scene he is in with his humor. It gives the film the energy it needs but again, the tone is not consistent. Even with the additional of Will Forte in plot specific role, the tone changes a little bit again. What "Aliens Abducted My Parents..." tries to do is admirable but in many ways, it is very scattered in what it wants to show without quite giving a sense of wonder it might have been able to accomplish. B-

By Tim Wassberg