We kind of liked this crazy sci-fi romantic comedy about a 1977 London high schooler obsessed with punk music who falls in love with an alien. Alex Sharp (Tony award winner for originating The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) plays the boy, named Enn (short for Henry), as smart and shy. He and two friends crash a party teeming with performance artists, worth the price of admission alone. Elle Fanning is well cast as the wide-eyed innocent alien called Zan, and Nicole Kidman is fun as punk performer Queen Boadiciea (Bo-da-CEE-a) (both women were last blogged for The Beguiled).
Director/co-writer John Cameron Mitchell (most recently helmed Rabbit Hole and wrote Shortbus (2006) after Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)) and co-writer Philippa Goslett (two other co-writing gigs) didn't so much adapt the 2007 award-winning short story by Neil Gaiman as jump off from it. You can read the whole story here.
The youtube playlist has sixteen songs, the spotify album has nineteen, and the imdb soundtrack list has 30, only a few of which are by the credited composers Nico Muhly (last scored Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and Jamie Stewart, whose band Xiu Xiu is credited. The sound of this movie is full of fury and it's well done, as is the look.
However, Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average of 47% is only slightly better than its audiences at 44. As of today you can rent or buy it on iTunes and Amazon. I recommend waiting for free streaming on netflix or whatever, just in case. And, right on the screen at the end, you can read the promise: No aliens were harmed in the making of this film.
Those suffering from MPMS, or Motion-Picture-Motion-Sickness, should take precautions, due to crazy camera moves. See the complete list here.
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