Sundance Review: ALIENS KIDDEN MY PARENTS AND NOW I FEEL LEFT OUT It’s a silly funny movie

After seeing a creepy and wacky horror film 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 see a film in the festival’s children’s program called, Aliens abducted my parents and now I feel left out.

I didn’t know anything about the movie, I just went there based on the title and thought it might be a fun movie. I was expecting something silly, and that’s exactly what I got, but this being Sundance I thought it should be a decent quality movie. After all, they only picked 99 movies out of thousands of submissions.

Well the movie started out interesting but then turned into a complete mess of a movie. I know it’s supposed to be a kid’s movie, but I’ve seen better made-for-TV movies on Nickelodeon and Disney channels. Are you telling me that out of all these thousands of submissions, this one came to this prestigious film festival? It confuses me. Now, he had some great wacky moments, but I don’t know how it got to Sundance. Low bar for kids movies perhaps?

Anyway, the movie starts with a little boy hanging out with his father on the roof of their house with a telescope waiting for a comet to cross the sky. His father leaves to take care of something, and while he is out there is a strange happening. The boy goes to look for his parents, but cannot find them. As he searches for them in a panic, he sees a UFO take off in the sky and realizes his parents have been abducted by aliens.

The film cuts to several years later. The boy is a teenager and like the comet is about to return again. He believes his parents will return and he will join them in their space adventure.

It is at this time in the boy’s life that a new family moves to the city and he befriends their teenage daughter, who is an aspiring journalist and is not happy with the move to this small town in the middle of nowhere.

The synopsis reads: “Itsy, an aspiring teenage journalist, is unhappy when her family moves to the small town of Pebble Falls. Amid new challenges – a fixer upper house and hostile high schoolers, to name a few – Itsy meets Calvin, her weird neighbor and space-obsessed classmate. Itsy befriends Calvin in hopes of writing an exposé on the extravagant for a summer internship in New York City, but soon learns that the amateur astronaut has an out-of-this-world secret. Calvin believes his parents were abducted by aliens, and his mission is to find and join them in space. As they struggle to uncover the truth, the estranged pair cultivate a surprising and heartwarming friendship.

While I have no problem with the story, the execution was a little messy. There were so many things about how the story unfolded that didn’t make any sense to me and the way the relationships with the characters developed was so frustrating to me! A children’s movie shouldn’t be frustrating to watch! So while there might be an audience for it, it wasn’t for me.

The film was directed by Jake Van Wagoner (Christmas time, C study) and thus the festival describes the film: “A lighthearted yet poignant family narrative set against the backdrop of the beautiful Utah landscape, Aliens abducted my parents and now I feel a little left out it’s a story about embracing what makes us different, finding belonging, and staying true to yourself. Suitable for children (and aliens) of all ages” The film is the protagonist Emma Trembley, Jacob Buster, Will Forte, Elizabeth Mitchell, Kennet CumminsAnd Matt Biedel.

You’ll just have to watch it yourself someday and form your own opinion about it.