‘The Becomers’: A Sci-Fi Love Story That Will Snatch Your Heart [Fantasia 2023 Review]
From classic films like E.T. to sitcoms like 3rd Rock from the Sun, stories about aliens trying to find their way on our earthly plane have universal appeal. You don’t have to “want to believe” that the “truth is out there” to enjoy these tall tales of tiny green men and women walking among us. You just have to know what it feels like feel out of place and long to belong.
Premiering at the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival, The Becomers is the latest entry in this oddly charming subgenre. Written and directed by Zach Clark (2016’s Little Sister), this short and sweet sci-fi dramedy is a warm mix of political commentary and extraterrestrial romance. And it really sticks the landing when it comes to matters of the heart.
In a way, The Becomers is an inverse Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It hijacks the prototypical pod people narrative to focus on the beings doing the identity theft: two strange invaders (played by a variety of actors including Molly Plunk and Isabel Alamin) forced to leave their dying home planet and inhabit new bodies on Earth. How do they feel while destroying the physical remains of their former hosts? Are they remorseful? Or are they just content to keep moving from flesh hub to flesh hub from here until eternity?
While the plot has interstellar origins, The Becomers is, first and foremost, a love story. Between scenes of viscera being dissolved down drains, we get to witness our otherworldly protagonists (whom we are told repeatedly are “lovers”) get lost in fits of intimacy. We’re talking everything from sharing weird snacks on a stolen couch to swapping spit (and other fluids) in the sheets. It’s creepy, cute and, above all, painfully relatable.
The Becomers embraces the warm and fuzzy idea that true love exists in every universe. There’s never a doubt our heroes will reunite each time they are forced to separate and take on new hosts. The film is more interested in how and when they will find each other again, their united will to stay together superseding everything, and anyone, that gets in their way.
At times, The Becomers’ low-fi special effects distract from its high concepts. Case in point: subplots about predatory congressmen and policing people’s private parts get less screen time than a recurring bit about colored contacts. But Clark has such a wonderfully warped sense of humour about everything, making it easy to overlook these flaws and just let the weird wash over you. As our own planet perishes in front of our eyes, it’s just refreshing to see a dystopian film that has such an optimistic take on existence and resilience.
The Becomers may not be out of this world, but it is down to earth. And that, fellow earthlings, is more than enough.
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The Becomers
Summary
With low-fi effects and a big heart, Zach Clark’s sci-fi dramedy offers a close encounter of the weird (and wonderful) kind.
