Pop Aye

Loneliness, alienation, the ache of nostalgia and the everyday absurdity of life infuse every encounter in the unconventional road trip.

This bucolic escape from big-city life is anchored by a solid script filled with characters who, despite reaching the end of the road, find ways to make peace with the world.

Filmmaker Kirsten Tan riffs on the tropes of both the buddy film and the road trip movie in her absurd yet subtly observed feature debut Pop Aye.

Pop Aye is a standard, if well-made, indie road trip dramedy. But, you know, with an elephant.

There is an eventual reckoning, but one wishes that Tan, at least for these moments, had allowed the film a few more inches of dramatic space.

Pop Aye has a pleasant, amiable tone, buttressed by Chananun Chotrungroj’s warm photography and picturesque framing as well as Lee Chatametikool’s purposeful editing scheme, and yet the film feels lacking overall.

A meandering, slow journey with a fairly bland leading character. Director Kirsten Tan, who is from Singapore and based in New York, must be admired for the audacity of casting an elephant as a co-star in her feature film debut.