The Becomers
The lives of native citizens are considered with great concern, however, when we talk of immigrants, these stories offer a new perspective that seems to be seldom explored by the native-born. The same thing could be said about science fiction, but in a much more over the top way, pushing the absurdity of the “normal” to its most extreme form. Another example of this situation is found in writer director Zach Clark’s “The Becomers,” which revolves around aliens who come to earth and take on human dimensions. Probably it is easier to watch the movie first hand rather than reading some review or a summary and then trying to watch the movie. The entire experience that the movie seeking to deliver is how Clark and other members of the cast and crew of the movie repeatedly reveal film’s dramatic elements sequentially unveiling the details of how and why bodies are taken over, how the creatures have sex (yes, sex, but not the kind you’ll be familiar with).
The film was shot largely in the greater Chicago area and quickly immerses viewers into its narrative. It is evident Goerman is working within the confines of its genre science fiction as he procedes to tackle the reason behind the aliens instead of humans coming into contact with them. The protagonists are a couple living on the last days of their home planet who have arrived on Earth separately, but are destined to be together and start their lives again, which they eventually do, while seemingly leading an ordinary American suburban family life. The aliens are played by different actors because, like in many sci-fi or horror movies, where some beast or spirit latches onto different vessels, this is also the case here. Isabel Alamin, Molly Plunk, Vitoria Misu and Mike Lopez are some of the members of the main cast. Russell Mael also occasionally narrates the story in a not very monotonous voice, which is sometimes surprisingly funny.
Disguises are of immense necessity. The initial form that comes with an inhabited human body contains fuchsia eyes that are glowing. To mask this, special contacts are almost a necessary requirement. Only fragments of the anatomies or the creatures found beneath human skins are visible but not in full. These visitors are acting well, as us. Anything that is regarded as “not right” could simply be because they are more human and a tad bit strange. Since all humans in some way or the other are peculiar once you are acquainted with them, they can freely do a lot.
People who deal with aliens who look like humans may sense that something is “off” but may not be sure. The aliens seem to be so dead pan and shy while interacting with humans yet so alert, cheerful, or enthusiastic towards everything they know about humanity and how they are selected to represent humanity and its ways. An amusing and touching moment happens where a ‘male’ and ‘female’ alien couple sit together on a couch watching television with the woman extending her long leg and touching the man with her foot, something she probably doesn’t even realize is an almost comic parody that depicts how humans use touch as a means to express sexual affection and closeness. No less revealing is a very short scene where one character is eating snacks from a can with a spoon which leaves one wondering how to eat from a can with a spoon.
They’ve finished up in suburbia for one reason or another, though not the type of suburbia that ‘American Beauty’ or ‘The Graduate’ depicts, where yuppies in designer clothes drive fancy cars and reflect on the hollowness of their possessions. This one is quite a, um, blue-collar suburbia, if you will. The automobile culture is king. People patronize corner grocery stores, and thrift chains. There is something in the manner in which Clark and cinematographer Darryl Pittman photograph the locations the generic motor lodge type of motel, the ordinary suburban house that is suggestive of a more startling fascination with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho than its central one. For it depicts America of the late 1950s to the early 1960s while the interstate system was being developed, many small towns were being left behind and strangled from any revenue, and the “liberation” offered by the highways turned into a fright and hopelessness if one was escaping something rather than seeking it.
I’m not quite confident that Clark has enough fuel to last throughout the premise with the duration of a feature length film (even this by Hollywood standards is very short). And the film lowers in sophistication, while rising in clumsiness and in confusion, when our main couple joins a cult, the characters of which are a bad joke woken up from Q Anon or rated MAGA to the max. But “The Becomers” is still a mesmerizing movie, and a perfect case of how you can make a lot out of very little. The plot thickens into a black comedy political kidnapping.
The movie revolves around the alien couple who are in its very center. First, their bond is a parody of phony American suburban happy-ending realizations, and second, it’s and unbelievably nice endorsement. In the middle part of the film, I began to think of David Cronenberg’s “The Fly,” in which sci-fi horror and gore was used to embody and explore the entirety of a dedicated couple’s commitment to one another, including the “in sickness and in health” bit. As Mickey & Sylvia sang in their classic song love can be a peculiar feeling, but it is also the most soothing during the midst of chaos.
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