FilmJuiceThere’s a high chance this low-budget oddball may be the ‘most clicked’ review of the week.
There’s a high
chance this low-budget oddball may be the ‘most clicked’ review of the week.
There’s an
equally high chance that this isn’t the film you think, or perhaps hope, it is.
What Codependent
Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same is, is an off-the-wall, quietly wry look at
New York’s lesbian dating scene as told through the story of lonely Jane (Lisa
Haas), a greetings card employee who, like everyone else in the Big Apple,
is seeing a therapist to get over her lack of confidence when approaching women
for a date.
Into her life,
via the wonders of intergalactic flight, comes Zoinx (Susan Zeigler), a
bald alien from the planet Zots, where heartbreak is depleting the ozone layer.
Along with her
compatriots Zylar (Jackie Monahan) and Barr (Cynthia Kaplan), all
of whom bear resemblance to Lieutenant Ilia from Star Trek: The Motion
Picture, they need to have their hearts broken, thus ridding themselves of
their planet-endangering emotions before they can return home.
Lurking in the
background is an odd couple of Men-in-Black types, who are tracking alien
activity from the comfort of their people carrier.
Zoinx fills
Jane’s life with joy and a sense of purpose, and their romance – the movies,
dancing and a trip to Coney Island – provides the base for a few cross-cultural
misunderstanding chuckles.
Zylar and Barr,
meanwhile, get into an ill-starred romance with each other, all the time aware
of the need to let each other down.
In the
background, the agency men (Alex Karpovsky and Dennis Davis)
bicker and yak in a Seinfeld-esque fashion, riffing about nothing in particular
while doing nothing much.
With the kind
of New-Yoik dialogue once favored by Woody
Allen before he decided to spend his time in Europe, this is also an homage
to 1950s sci-fi cheese. The outer space scenes are deliberately, affectionately
bad, bringing to mind shows like Lost in
Space.
It falls short
of its ambition somewhat by not being enormously funny, although there are one
or two good lines.
But released as
it is by Peccadillo Pictures, specialists in arthouse and LGBT movies, this
debut feature from director Madeleine Olnek may find a willing audience
on DVD.
