Alienated
“Uptown” was a character drama, a romantic movie in the vein of the “Before” trilogy, that was part of a trio of films I watched from One Way or Another Productions in 2009, when my screening requests started to ramp up. It was a smart, emotional movie that really spoke to me, and was one of my favorite movies of 2009. Six years later, that film’s writer-director, Brian Ackley, finally has a new feature finished, and it hits a lot of the same notes, but seems to come from a very different perspective. “Alienated” starts out as (potentially) one thing, but soon after reveals itself to be something quite unique from the perspective of Ackley’s previous film.
The film begins with hand-drawn images on paper underneath the opening credits. The images, evocatively scored by Barbara J. Weber, depict an alien invasion, and the chaos inherent in that happening. The credits then move into an image Nate (George Katt), who is looking up at the night sky with a video camera, and he sees something that could resemble a UFO. Though he is anxious to share this sighting, his wife of four years, Paige (Jen Burry), doesn’t seem very receptive, and as we soon discover, communication between the two feels difficult. He seems very self-involved, and every time Paige tries to bring it up, an argument breaks out. It’s not hard to see where Paige is coming from, and why Nate senses she wouldn’t be receptive to his theory on what he saw, but at the same time, you sympathize with Nate, who doesn’t feel supported by his wife, and sees easily that the romance is very much gone from the relationship.
The potential of an alien invasion is practically an afterthought as we see Nate and Paige’s marriage implode before our very eyes. But it’s not much of a surprise, really, to see it happen by the time their first discussion in the film is done– it’s obvious these two haven’t been on the same page for a while, and it’s now that all of those differences are coming out, and taking a toll on the couple. A brief reprieve is afforded to Nate when he meets their neighbor, Griffin, who has Nate pegged from the moment he meets him, and isn’t afraid to call him out on his troubles. Griffin is played by the late Taylor Negron, a comic and actor who made his last film with “Alienated.” Even though, looking at his filmmography, I’ve seen plenty of his films over the years, it wasn’t really until I watched his appearances on “Viewpoint,” a political commentary show on the now-defunct Current channel, that I really felt like I was introduced to him, and I’m glad I did. His role as Griffin is distinctive and compelling, even if it only takes up three scenes of “Alienated,” but it’s completely memorable and integral to the film as a whole. It’s almost tempting to say that he steals the film from Katt and Burry, but while their roles aren’t quite as unique, they perform them well, digging deep into these characters, and giving us insight into not only why they feel the way they do about one another, but for how long they’ve felt that way.
With his two features, Ackley is proving himself to be an insightful and memorable writer-director when it comes to getting to the heart of how men and women sometimes are drawn to one another, but also, how they pull apart, as well. I think “Uptown” is probably still my favorite of the two, but “Alienated” takes a large-scale event, or at least the possibility of one, and tells a story even more explosive in a way that makes what we see happen in the last few minutes of the film seem small in comparison. Of course, the event that Nate sees in the beginning is the catalyst for the entire film, but the fact that it isn’t all the movie is about is what makes “Alienated” stick with you.
