In 2013 I was introduced to director and editor Zach Clark’s unique talents as a satirist when I saw his third indie film “White Reindeer.” His fifth film, “The Becomers,” opens today at Cinema Village in Manhattan. Go here for showtimes and ticket information. The director will be present at the 7pm showings today and Saturday for a Q&A. Fritz Meyer, who did the soundtrack, will be also be performing at both of those screenings as well as at Spectacle on September 6 and 7, at the Roxy on September 11, and at Nitehawk Williamsburg on September 23.
One science fiction film trope involves aliens visiting the earth in disguised human form and trying to learn how to fit in with the odd earthlings. In “The Man Who Fell To Earth” (1976) David Bowie’s alien simultaneously watches dozens of TV sets stacked up to quickly assimilate the culture of the Americans surrounding him. In “Under the Skin” (2013) another alien (played by Scarlet Johannson) calmly watches a woman attempt to rescue her drowning dog, who is then followed into the water by her husband. The alien looks unemotionally at the child remaining on the shore who is crying as she awaits a sure death after her parents succumb to the rip tide. What is going on here, she thinks. This interplanetary “fish out of water” scenario serves to “make strange” (a Russian Formalist literary term) our behavior and practices. We notice things and values we usually take for granted.
In “The Becomers” the film is at its best when the shape-shifting aliens from a dying planet are comically curious about the places and customs they encounter. A Motel 6 (so named because in the early 1970’s you could stay the night for only $6!) somewhere near Chicago is the initial habitat for the first alien, Francesca (Isabel Alimin). Dark haired, resembling a young Julia Roberts, she wears sunglasses and a mask (the film is set during the pandemic) as she pays a geeky clerk in hundred dollar bills she has stolen from a woman she killed to steal her body. Once alone we see that her eyes take the form of a bright neon turquoise light. Francesca recites lines from TV commercials to perfect her English. She orders contacts with human eye stencils to complete her disguise.
When the police arrive she hitches a ride with Carol, a red-headed woman (a wonderful comic performance by Molly Plunk) who is buying survivalist gear at a Home Depot. Francesca steals Carol’s body and drives to her beautiful suburban home. Carol’s ‘fridge is full of self-canned marmalade and other foods. “How do you make marmalade?” she asks the connected home device.
When her husband Gordon (Mike Lopez from “All Jacked Up And Full Of Worms”) returns he knows something is wrong but he is soon replaced by another alien. They have odd sexual orifices on their sides and at one point Carol gives birth to a child that looks as strange as the fetus in David Lynch’s “Eraserhead.” (There is also a dinner scene in which everyone is served Cornish hens which may have been inspired by another scene in Lynch’s 1997 masterpiece.)
A reversed needlepoint (a great twist) provides them with the combination of their basement where they find the kidnapped Governor (a brilliant performance by Keith Kelly) they’ve been hearing about on the TV. The human kidnappers (“the order of the white circle”) arrive and have Carol and Gordon join them in the ritual killing of their hostage. The couples’ misreadings of the requirements of the ceremony delivers some of the funniest moments of the film.
“The Becomers” is a very funny, twisted sci-fi satire with always surprising plot turns and a wonderful indie film cast. Jarring industrial music by Fritz Meyer is put to good use during violent scenes. Russell Mael (of the band Sparks) provides a narration describing the events during the last days of the dead planet the aliens have fled. The film would be better without this; it detracts from what is already a fascinating narrative. We don’t need their origin story.