By Jason Collins
| Published
Does anyone remember the lumbersexual trend where individuals would adopt the appearance and attributes associated with rugged, outdoorsy, and traditional masculinity while also being utterly incapable of changing a flat tire? Well, the advent of technology and modern lifestyle had a rather detrimental effect on traditional survival skills, and Save Yourselves!, a movie available to rent or buy digitally, does a good job of portraying that in a rather comedic way that will have you rolling on the floor.
Save Yourselves! is an overlooked sci-fi comedy all about a technology-free vacation interrupted by an alien invasion.
To be entirely honest, Save Yourselves! isn’t about someone rediscovering survival skills in a Tomb Raider-reboot manner. The movie’s plot actually revolves around the lives of Su and Jack—portrayed by Sunita Mani and John Reynolds, respectively—a young urban couple feeling overwhelmed by their technology-infused lives and their reliance on the Internet. With their relationship on the rocks, they decide to embark on an unplugged retreat in a remote cabin in upstate New York, with the goal of reconnecting with each other, free from the distractions of smartphones and social media.
However, their romantic getaway takes a rather unexpected and hilarious turn when the Earth succumbs to an alien invasion, and the couple, disconnected from the world, misses the memo and remains blissfully unaware of the chaos unfolding around them. As they struggle to survive in the wilderness with rather limited resources and no Internet connection, the movie unfolds into a fantastic comedy of errors and absurd situations, which makes Save Yourselves! great.
The movie juxtaposed the absurdity of an alien invasion, in which the aliens are just cute fluffy balls, with the mundanity of unplugged existence or even co-existence, which actually fuels the comedic brilliance of Save Yourselves! We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: the true genius lies in taking well-known elements and mixing them together to make something new. And this is where the genius of Save Yourselves! really shines; its humor is mined from perpetually made fun of millennials, but the interpretation—fueled by a ridiculous plot—is really refreshing.
The delivery can be credited to a small yet talented cast that brings the quirky characters of Su and Jack to life, and both Mani and Reynolds have a remarkable chemistry that actually drives the whole movie. The authenticity of their portrayals of a couple in crisis is what actually draws the viewers into the whole movie, but the unplugged lifestyle, alien invasion, and lack of any real survival skills make the absurdity of the narrative captivating to the audiences. Considering that Hollywood has nearly exhausted every alien-invasion idea ever, Save Yourselves! is truly something different.
In the end, Save Yourselves! is really a movie for everyone, regardless of whether you’re a sci-fi enthusiast, a comedy lover, or simply looking for a movie that will make you cry with laughter.
With everything great we have said about the movie so far, it’s easy to imagine Save Yourselves! as a revolutionary entry in the comedic genre. Those are some pretty big shoes to fill, and the movie doesn’t actually reinvent fire, but it sets a good example to the rest of the industry that you don’t really need a studio budget to make good comedy. As stated above, the aliens are comically understated (most likely for comedic and financial purposes combined), and the visuals aren’t really on par with studio-budget movies.
Those ridiculous creatures also came from a surprisingly hands-on process. In a SAGindie interview, co-director Eleanor Wilson explained that the aliens were designed to look like something the couple might overlook in the cabin until it started moving. She designed and hand-stitched the pouffes using feathers wrapped around domes, while visual effects supervisor Calder Greenwood built different mechanisms underneath them. That gives the fluffy invaders a wonderfully ordinary starting point, which makes their sudden menace even funnier.
But the lack of premium-grade photorealism CGI and high-budget VFX further contributes to the overall charm of Save Yourselves! so much that the movie has an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, with the critics’ consensus stating that the movie doesn’t do anything unexpected with its one-joke premise, but fortunately, that one joke is consistently funny throughout the film. Furthermore, the film’s mix of relatable themes, hilarious dialogue, and a unique concept earned it a spot as an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020.
The movie juxtaposed the absurdity of an alien invasion, in which the aliens are just cute fluffy balls, with the mundanity of unplugged existence or even co-existence, which actually fuels the comedic brilliance of Save Yourselves!
In the end, Save Yourselves! is really a movie for everyone, regardless of whether you’re a sci-fi enthusiast, a comedy lover, or simply looking for a movie that will make you cry with laughter. It excels at reminding us to appreciate the simple things in life while also poking fun at the perils of modern technology, as well as the dangers of taking a radically opposite approach to tech. Save Yourselves! is available to rent or buy through Prime Video. This is a paid rental or purchase, rather than a title included with a Prime subscription.
