Save Yourselves!

"Save Yourselves!" (2020 release; 93 min.) brings the story of John and Sue, a couple in Brooklyn. As the movie opens, they are bickering about computer and smart phone time. After attending a party where a friend offers his renovated updated cabin for free for a week, John and Sue eagerly take up the offer, and furthermore, they decide to disconnect from their phones and computers... At this point we are 10 min. into the film but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this small-budget indie movie was written and directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, this being their feature length debut. The story is the umpteenth reimagination of what "the end of the world" might look like, but they bring it with an original twist that I will not give away. Watch the film and the title of my review will make all the sense in the world. Sunita Mani (as Sue) and John Reynolds (as Jack), best known for their respective TV work, are enjoyable in the lead roles. They are in just about every frame of the film, and for long stretches it's just them. This film is billed as a scifi comedy, and I suppose it is. But I must be honest: rarely laughed (and certainly not out loud). The film lacks gravitas to be taken seriously, but it also lacks truly funny moments to work as a comedy. Instead what we get is an off-center indie film that is more quirky than anything else.

"Save Yourselves!" opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, of course fully adhering to all COVID-19 social distancing and other protocols. Not that it matter much, as the Friday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended poorly: exactly 3 people (including myself) in the theater's largest room. I honestly don't know how this and other theaters can keep operating like this on a profitable basis. Meanwhile, if you have any interest in an atypical "end of the world" scifi comedy, I'd readily suggest you check this out , be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Interesting and unique, but as the film proceeds its keeps getting abstract and finally ends unsatisfactorily.

It was a fun little movie that was clearly made on a limited budget that leaves things to the audience to decide.

How well would a bunch of quinoa-eating, anti-gun liberal progressive Instagramers fare if faced with protecting themselves from an alien invasion?

That's the question this movie asks, and watching the answer play out is humorous, but I couldn't help but think how much better a movie could have been made from such a good premise. For a liberal progressive like myself, it's easy to put myself in the shoes of the protagonists, a hipster couple from New York who decide to take a break from social media at the worst possible time, and there are some chuckles to be had at making fun of them and by extension myself. The film is at its best in the first half, as this oblivious couple gradually catches on that something is amiss. But it unravels the longer it goes on, and the ending falls apart, as if the filmmakers painted themselves into a corner they didn't know how to get out of.

In a year as terrible as 2020, the film's message, which can essentially be boiled down to valuing those closest to you and forget the rest, is welcome. I just wish it had come in a better package.

Grade: B-

Interesting concept with so some WOW moments combined with comedy this film worked well. If it had a larger budget it might have been really great. The ending is LIKE WHAT?