A ChucksConnection Film Review

 

Jacob Buster wears black high top Converse “Chuck Taylor” All Stars in the film.

Aliens Abducted My Parents

and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out

by Hal Peterson

Town newcomer Itsy and town outcast Calvin searching for a comet.

 

When you see a film title Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out you are not quite sure what to think. The first part of the title suggests an intense sci fi flick filled with UFO sightings and little red spacemen with a nefarious agenda on earth. The second part of the title suggests a situation comedy with an ET type of theme. But actually this film is about about something else, an unusual romantic relationship that slowly develops between Itsy (Emma Tremblay), a newcomer in the small rural town of Pebble Falls, and Calvin (Jacob Buster), an outcast loner teenager. Calvin believes that his parents were taken by aliens when he was seven years old that coincided with an appearance of a comet that he was watching on a telescope with his father. Calvin thinks that his best bet to get his parents back is to track the comet which come close to Earth every ten years. His whole life is centered around this. He often wears a full astronaut suit as part of his self-training to be ready for when the comet does return.

A spaceman answers the door.

The story line is mostly presented from the viewpoint of Itsy. As the film open Itsy, her parents Nelson (Matt Biedel), and Wendy (Hailey Smith) and annoying younger brother Evan (Kenneth Cummins) are just about to arrive at their new home in rural Pebble Falls. Their new home is a definite fixer-upper, immediately needing a new front door and roof repair, but this doesn’t seem to phase Itsy’s parents in the least. Apparently they were so eager to leave New York City, they bought the house sight unseen. And Nelson didn’t even bother to pack any tools. He sends Itsy and Evan to their neighbor’s house to borrow a screw driver, hammer, and duct tape. Their house is so far in the boonies that the nearest hardware store is a two hour drive away. At the neighbor’s house, no one answers the front door, but when they look around back, they are shocked when an astronaut in a full spacesuit answers the door, scaring them both away. This turns out to be Itsy’s first meeting with Calvin, who lives there alone, since his grandmother passed away a year ago

 

Calvin and Itsy form an unlikely relationship.

 

At her first day at school the next day, Itsy meets Calvin in her math class, who comes to school wearing his spacesuit. When the two are paired for an in class assignment, they start to connect as Itsy discovers that Calvin is a nice person, and has spent a lot of time studying astronomy in his quest to find his missing parents. Another student, Heather (Landry Townsend) who is the class president and editor of the student newspaper notices this and approaches Itsy about working with her on a writing competition that will net the winners a journalism internship at New York University. Itsy, whose goal in life is to work for the New York Times, is all in for a chance to return to New York and see her friends there again. Heather’s plan is to write an exposé about Calvin, who she believes is the only interesting story in Pebble Falls that would appeal to the outside world. Itsy agrees; her job in the collaboration is to get to know Calvin and learn what motivates him.

 

Itsy meets Calvin on her first day of school.

As the storyline builds, and Itsy gets to know Calvin better, she begins to realize that an exposé is the wrong approach for understanding Calvin. Whether or not his parents were truly taken by aliens, it is what Calvin truly believes. And he has had a hard life, growing up without parents or any other family after his grandmother passed away. When the two end up taking a road trip together (along with unwanted stowaway Evan), they begin to connect as a couple. But dark clouds are about to descend on Calvin, and they are some clever twists and turns of the plot in the last third of the film. Writer Austin Osanai Everett deserves credit for taking typical teen and sci fi themes and mixing them together in a way that is interesting and heartfelt. The cast is mostly made up of lesser known actors, but there is good chemistry between Emma Tremblay and Jacob Buster in the title roles. Some of the special effects are budget limited, but don’t really take away from the impact and thoughtfulness of the story line.

Best Chucks Scene

Calvin is shocked when he reads the article in the school newspaper.

 

Jacob Buster, who regularly wears black high top chucks in his films, wears them again in this film. There are not a lot of good closeups, but chucks are good footwear for a quirky person like Calvin. The best scene for them is at Pebble Falls High School, after Heather publishes her article about Calvin and he confronts Heather and Itsy in the parking lot outside as other students watch.

Calvin confronts Itsy and Heather in the school parking lot while other students look on.

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