A ChucksConnection Film Review

 

Lulu Wilson wears black high top Converse “Chuck Taylor” All Stars in the film.

Xeno

 

by Hal Peterson

Renee encounters Xeno, a real alien from outer space.

 

On the surface, Xeno follows the familiar story line of films made in the E.T. genre, (like Earth To Echo for example) where an alien from outer space is stuck on earth and discovered by kids who make contact with it, befriend it, and later try to protect it from ruthless government authorities who are determined to capture, kill, and dissect it. But Xeno takes this idea and gives us a very different take. Instead of charming suburban kids like Elliott and Gertie we meet Renee (Lulu Wilson), a very independent-minded and sharp-tongued teenager who has a very different mindset. Instead of cuddly dolls or stuffed animals, Renee’s room is filled with terrariums containing her pet snake, lizards, a tarantula, and a scorpion. At school she is a loner, angry about living in the isolated southwestern desert town where her recently widowed mother Linda (Wrenn Schmidt) has brought her to live, and not very sociable with the other students, except for Gil (Trae Romano), another loner teen who she befriends on a whim when she sees him eating alone in the school cafeteria. At home Renee is still mourning the recent death of her father and resents her mom for not doing the same. As a result she is estranged from her mom and antagonistic to her mom’s boyfriend Chase (Paul Schneider) a borderline alcoholic with a nasty temper who is tolerated by Linda because “he needs someone.”

 

Renee and Gil must work together to hide and protect the monster.

The story line gets going when we see a twirling, meteorite-looking object hurtling into the earth’s atmosphere and crashing in the desert near Renee’s home. Inside the space ship is Croak (Garrett van der Leun), a formidable looking alien with a protruding mouth containing very sharp teeth, a dark body with gill-like scales that at times stands upright on two legs and other times is four legged when it has to move fast. It has yellow blood inside it and a scary roar that is very intimidating. The first person to see it is a hunter (MJ Wolfe) and his dog who immediately runs away. Croak (this is the name that Renee gives the alien) manages to get trapped in one of the hunter’s leg iron traps. Later Renee drives out there in her ATV to escape from home and discovers the crater left by the crash and Croak trapped nearby. At school she orders Gil to let her borrow his mom’s video recorder and the next day goes out there with the camera and a pair of bolt cutters to release Croak from captivity. It roars at her but is smart enough to not harm the one earth creature that helped it get free. She does not act fearful of it but works hard to communicate with it. Just like with her collection of oddball pets, she looks for the good in Croak and they begin to bond. The way she communicates with Croak through light touching, loud conversation, playing calming music on her banjo, and telling Croak who it should or should not eat is one of the best parts of the film. It sends a message that there can be understanding between beings that would naturally be enemies. Renee, with her admiration and understanding of disparaged earth critters is the perfect person to communicate with and understand Croak, unlike all the other humans who want only to capture and kill it. Eventually the monster lifts her up into a force field it creates between them, and does a full mind-meld, so it can now more completely understand Renee.

 

Renee walks along the road as her mom approaches.

 

Meanwhile others are searching for Croak. There are constant government helicopters flying over the area, the hunter returns figuring that there might be a bounty involved, and aggressive agents from Homeland Security appear. Renee realizes that she must hide Croak and brings the alien down into the basement of her house. Now she must keep him hidden away not only from outsiders but also her mom Linda and her boyfriend Chase. She is approached by Agent Keyes (Omari Hardwick), who has a compulsive habit of rolling a toy car around in his hand, and Agent Brown (Josh Cooke). Keyes figures that she must know something since her house is so close to the crater where the alien ship crashed. He is determined to get that information out of her and is very threatening about it. At the same time there is a lot of tension between Renee, her mom, and Chase, as they have some angry confrontations. Her only ally in all of this is Gil, but he is not particularly effective other than as basic support for her. As the film moves toward its climax, Renee must not only fight off Chase, but is forced to become a pawn in Agent Keyes plan to use her as bait to trap Xeno.

 

Renee’s bag of things to help with the contact.

 

Writer and director Matthew Loren Oates has given us a thoughtful and scary at times film that is definitely not for the younger set. There is a lot of violence in the film as both Keyes and Chase make vicious and aggressive moves against Renee. The casting is well done as is the cinematography. The special effects do not suffer from a low budget at all, especially for the creation of the alien creature Croak who looks quite believable and scary. Lulu Wilson, in her role as Renee carries the film by showing many sides to her personality as she cares for her weird pet collection, outreaches to Croak, becomes his defender, and fights against the adults who treat her poorly. Credit must be given to how Croak was portrayed in the film, sometimes by a costumed actor Garrett van der Leun and other times with puppetry by the Jim Henson company. The ending part of the film is the least satisfying but don’t forget to watch past the first credits at the film’s end for an extra scene that hints at a sequel.

Best Chucks Scene

 

A closeup of Renee’s black high top chucks as she is lifted up by force field.

 

Lulu Wilson (Renee) wears black high top chucks throughout the film. Even without the arrival of the alien, she is a loner at school, frustrated by her move to the desert community where she now lives. Adding to that frustration is the fact that she is trying to deal with her grief over her father’s passing and confront her issues with the adults in her life. Her chucks are an important expression of her rebellious personality and independence, something that becomes more difficult to maintain as the story progresses. The best chucks scenes come toward the beginning of the film as she makes first contact with Croak. The camera work focuses on them as she is shown setting up the video camera to record what happens and we see a flash of them later when she is lifted up into a force field so that the alien can mind-meld with her. Additionally, there is chucks friendly cinematography throughout the film.

 

A close up of Renee’s chucks as she is setting up her tripod.

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