Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out is among the longest titles entered into the Sundance Film Festival this year. One of just three films in the festival’s Kids section in 2023, the project looked appealing for its Spielbergian approach to an all-ages story and for the fact that Will Forte (Booksmart) and Elizabeth Mitchell (The Santa Clauses) are in it. As a fan of kids and family content, I’m sorry to say that Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out is undercooked in every regard.
(Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
Itsy (Emma Tremblay) just moved to Pebble Falls, a quiet community that’s as different from the big city she was raised in as can be. Struggling to fit in, a popular girl named Heather (Landry Townsend) convinces the aspiring journalist to help her write a story about the weirdest guy in school, Calvin (Jacob Buster), who goes to class in a space suit and can calculate Lightspeed in his head. But as Itsy gets close to her unusual neighbor, she learns that he was abandoned as a child, believing that his mom and dad were abducted by aliens.
The film’s unusual title comes from the headline of the story Itsy and Heather end up writing. It briefly touches on bullying, only to not do anything with the narrative. Itsy is a 17-year-old and one of the challenges with the film is the dialogue, which feels inauthentic across the board. She and her peers don’t talk like teens, and her parents (played by Matt Biedel and Hailey Smith) are obnoxiously stupid (and oddly horny for a film targeted at kids).
As hard as it is to connect to the largely one-dimensional cast of characters, Jacob Buster holds the film together as much as possible as Calvin. He stumbles through some of the bad dialogue, but overall is endearing enough to keep you in your seat through the end. The highlight of the film is a sequence where he reunites with his mother, played by Elizabeth Mitchell, who gives 110% to her brief appearance. Will Forte is also warm and comforting in his handful of scenes. And yet, Calvin’s character journey takes an abrupt change in the final act, giving up everything he’s been trying to accomplish in the time since his parents’ disappearance because he might a girl who might maybe want to kiss him, but is definitely going to leave Pebble Falls as soon as she graduates.
I wanted to love Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out. Written by Austin Everett and directed by Jake Van Wagoner, the film would’ve benefitted from a longer development period and punched-up dialogue. When it tries to be funny, it’s not. When it tries to be heartwarming, it never quite reaches its target. And worst of all, it feels long at just 87 minutes.
I give Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out 2 out of 5 stars.