Extraterrestrial, which had its world premiere at the 2011 Toronto
International Film Festival, follows up on Vigalondo’s Timecrimes. In
the movie, two strangers in Madrid find their morning disrupted by a
suspicious neighbor, an ex-boyfriend and a mysterious flying saucer.
Entertainment One will release Extraterrestrial on DVD this summer.
Extraterrestrial is complex and farcical without losing its grip on the
emotional weight carried by characters who must make serious decisions
(such as what to do when your boyfriend blows up half of your home
town). It’s only a matter of time before it receives a small theatrical
run in Portland and is ushered into the pantheon of modern European
cult classics, along with the rest of Vigalondo’s work. In essence,
Extraterrestrial asks the question: To what extent would human beings
make complete assholes of themselves in the event of an alien invasion?
It answers this question by focusing on the bumbling human reaction to
an invasion, and it does so with so much wit that for long periods you
forget about the city-sized saucer hovering above the characters like
the world’s most foreboding raincloud. Vigalondo isn’t quite a Preston
Sturges/Charlie Kaufman-level cinematic trickster, but it’s very
tempting to call Extraterrestrial the best science-fiction comedy since
Being John Malkovich.
