Sunita Mani in “Save Yourselves!” (CREDIT: Bleecker Street)

Starring: Sunita Mani, John Paul Reynolds

Directors: Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson

Running Time: 93 Minutes

Rating: R for Profanity Screamed When Discovering a Little Alien

Release Date: October 2, 2020 (Theaters)/October 6, 2020 (Digital)

Young adults sure are so stuck in their own worlds that they could easily miss an entire invasion of aliens or monsters or some other army of supernatural creatures. I don’t think this is a generational thing. I suspect all people of past, current, and future generations are liable to succumb to this when they’re in their twenties and thirties. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if this pattern really started to take hold as cultural norms shifted to where they are now, with marriages happening later in life and job stability frequently in flux. There’s so much uncertainty about becoming a responsible adult! That was certainly the case in 2004’s Shaun of the Dead when zombies snuck their way into a land thick with ennui, and it’s a hot topic once again in Save Yourselves! as little killer furball aliens find themselves up against a millennial couple in the midst of a technology detox.

John Paul Reynolds in “Save Yourselves!” (CREDIT: Bleecker Street)

Su (Sunita Mani) and Jack (John Paul Reynolds) are your basic Brooklynites who think it would be really good for themselves to head to an upstate cabin in the woods where the Internet is unplugged and the cell phone service is nonexistent. Reynolds is an especially smart casting choice here, as he’s best known for the sitcom Search Party, which has a similar (though much more biting) satirical lens as Save Yourselves! Writer/directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson frame Su and Jack as somewhat worthy of ridicule, but they also present them as kind of adorable. They’re agitated by the daily grind of modern life and their own annoying habits, but they also make an effort to listen and be affectionate to each other. We’re primed to be on their side!

Before the aliens arrive, it’s fun to watch Su and Jack struggle to keep straight the rules of unplugging. Among their quandaries is the classic of: are you allowed to refer to an online listicle that you saved from earlier, or is that off-limits because it originated on the internet? At a certain point, though, their antics do grow a little tiresome. Luckily, the real stars of the show are those extraterrestrials. They’re basically little piles of hair (think the Tribbles from Star Trek) with tongue-like appendages hidden within their fluff that are as deadly as a gunshot. Su and Jack’s attempts to engage with them are as fraught as any life-or-death situation, but also as silly as any slapstick scenario could possibly be. The creatures have a weakness for alcohol that our heroes do their best to exploit, but they’re also so bizarre and foreign and just plain adorable that it seems like there’s just no way to figure out what to do with them. It’s a metaphor for our times, methinks. Modern life is overwhelming and pretty much impossible to navigate no matter how much you are or are not plugged into the Information Overload.

Save Yourselves! is Recommended If You Like: Shaun of the Dead, Search Party, Furbys

Grade: 3 out of 5 Pouffes