Alpha Gang

With a game, diverse cast and the absurdity of human nature driving the incidents, it suggests a live-action cartoon, bursting with energy and a childlike emotional honesty.

As polarizing as Alpha Gang can be, there's still a fun and undeniable charm to it if you allow yourself the chance to indulge in its weirdness and humor. It's not meant to make a whole lot of sense; it's not meant to be taken too seriously — just sit back, enjoy the music, and watch as these aliens discover what it means to be human.

Shortly after it begins to overstay its welcome, yielding diminishing returns, the film thankfully concludes — reminding us that cinema can afford to make more room for uncompromising visions and kooky little artworks with something to say and some fun to spare.

This very amusing film benefits from fun deadpan turns by Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista and Chris Pine, and the extra-terrestrials’ 1950s-biker aesthetic is plenty fetching. But eventually Alpha Gang overstays its welcome, the characters’ outfits proving sharper than the script.

The absurd concept, in terms of production design, world building, escalation and committed performances makes it hard not to enjoy. Its earnest emotion is moving at times.

If you tell a joke and it doesn’t land, telling it even louder won’t make it funnier. It’s a bit of advice that sibling filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner might want to heed following Alpha Gang. Their latest is an overlong and overloud one gag movie that leaves a game, all-star cast looking for the punchline.

What we’re left with feels less like a movie than the outline of one, with character development or plot to be shaded in later.