Review: Absurd low budget sci-fi comedy 'Save Yourselves!' light on laughs

Courtesy of Bleecker Street

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A goofy premise slowly loses steam in the quirky, offbeat, comedy “Save Yourselves!” which attempts to offer low-budget sci-fi laughs mixed with an irreverent sense of humor. Written and directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, the light comedy tries to blend social commentary with an extraterrestrial narrative, but despite the presences of two solid performers, the longer the film goes on, the harder it becomes to root for. 

Jack (John Reynolds) and Su (Sunita Mani) are your generic couple slumming it up in Brooklyn. They try to be hip and when the opportunity arises to use a friend’s cottage upstate, away from civilization, they waste no time unplugging technology and hitting the road in an effort to work on the intimacy of their relationship. 

Unbeknownst to them, aliens - that look the equivalent to possessed Furbys - have arrived on earth and started attacking the city they just left. With minimal survival skills and no idea how to evade the creatures, Jack and Su hunker down for the long haul. Along the way, we glimpse into why their relationship could use some work and it has everything to do with communication. 

One wonders how they’ve managed to stay together, with the bickering growing tiresome as the alien conflict becomes imminent. Reynolds and Mani hurl a few decent quips at the other and “Save Yourselves!” packs the occasional laugh. Notably with the wordplay on what the aliens should be called. They settle on “Pouffe,” so when Jack sees one in broad daylight and screams “Pouffe on a roof!” You laugh. Plus watching these two oddballs navigate a Pouffe invested landscape for a solid ten minutes isn’t the worst way to spend the end of mankind!

Beyond that, “Save Yourselves!” brings forth plenty of silly ideas but never acts upon them. Will the characters grow into decent individuals and figure out how to survive this madness? Or just stand by with their mouths agape, screaming about the state of the world? The answers (or lack thereof) plus an ending that nosedives into absurdity, leaves this well intentioned comedy stuck in purgatory. 

Grade: C+

SAVE YOURSELVES! opens in select theaters October 2nd and then hits streaming/VOD October 6th.