“Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out” (2023) [Make Believe Seattle Film Festival]

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In their “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out by director Jake Van Wagoner, a family friendly coming-of-age movie with science fiction elements.

Synopsis

Itsy's (Emma Tremblay) new in town and thinks her life is over until she meets her space-obsessed neighbor Calvin (Jacob Buster), who believes his parents were abducted by aliens. As an aspiring journalist, Itsy decides to write an exposé, but she discovers much more.

The Good

Joseph: Jake Van Wagoner, working from a screenplay by Austin Everett, takes some standard coming-of-age cinema tropes and characters — such as the new kid at school who didn’t want to move in the first place (Tremblay), the school oddball protagonist (Buster), the annoying but loved younger brother (Kenneth Cummins as Evan), and the manipulative mean girl (Landry Townsend as Heather) — and manages to craft an engaging sci-fi tinged feature that entertains throughout. Tremblay and Buster are both solid in their lead roles, and they show fine, fun chemistry together.

Mike: As a family-friendly, quirky little flick, this will fill the bill perfectly. The basic plot isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but there are enough elements in play to make it original enough to satisfy its target demographic of tweens and their parents.

The characters are fun and Tremblay, Buster, and Kenneth Cummins) have a nice chemistry as new girl Itsy, outcast Calvin, and Itsy’s little brother, Evan. Calvin in a spacesuit, Evan with fart jokes, and some cute little visitors towards the end should elicit some laughs from the younger kids and parents will enjoy seeing Will (MacGruber) Forte and Elizabeth (Lost) Mitchell as Calvin’s parents.

The Bad

Joseph: What with “aliens” being the first word in the film’s title, the following shouldn’t be a spoiler: the aliens look incredibly low budget, and a certain spacesuit in the third act isn’t far behind. This may be intentional with the extraterrestrials so as not to spook younger viewers, but those same younger viewers probably wouldn’t find the “Will they kiss?” romance angle between Itsy and Calvin too interesting either, I would imagine. This may be a case of trying to appeal to all age groups in a typical family unit with younger children and tweenagers, but older teens may find the proceedings a bit corny.

Mike: There’s a lot to unpack here and that’s the film’s biggest fault. There’s starting over, moving to a new home/school, divorce, abandonment, emotional coping, being true to one’s self, not being “fake”, and a few more. The problem is that it feels like too much is thrown at the wall. Younger kids - the target audience - may become bored with the slow pace and “talking parts” and the older half - the tweens - may find the “non talking parts” a bit listless and/or too “kiddie”.

The Verdict

Joseph: Viewers will have a pretty good idea of where things are headed much of the time, but Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out serves up enough original ideas to make it worth a watch, especially for families looking for cinematic fare that they can share together.

Mike: While there isn’t really anything wrong with Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out, it is a bit slow and somewhat over-packed with lessons to learn which may be tough for the younger ones in the target demographic to sort out. It is, however, a fun and family-friendly movie that is perfectly suitable as a baby step into the world of sci-fi and coming-of-age stories.

Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out had its West Coast Premiere on Thursday, March 23rd, as part of the Make Believe Seattle Film Festival.

Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out