The UFO Girl

Well, this is just adorable in the best possible way. The UFO Girl tells a story that’s been done plenty of times, but it does it with a fresh spin and a sense of wonder that’s just really nice to experience. A UFO has landed in, or at least has been perpetually hovering above, a small town with a 50s aesthetic named Stone’s Throw. It doesn’t really do anything, no one has ever seen inside it or who/what piloted it here, but it’s great for tourism apparently. Nikki Jones is our lead character who’s had an obsession with the UFO since she was a young girl. She studies it, leads local tours with it as a subject, and she confides it all while doing her best to survive as the town’s nerdy kid with prom coming up.

There are shades of a few other films. It’s almost as if Tim Burton during the 90s made a mashup of ET, Stand by Me and Back to the Future rather than Mars Attacks. What’s more, is that it’s so self-aware in what its influences are that it innocently captures some of the magic from the genre films that came before for itself. It never feels like it’s doing anything more than a respectful nod however, and that’s a show of great restraint.

The CGI that it relies on to tell its story adds a visual that’s almost comforting. It’s not state-of-the-art and it isn’t overly impressive in a technical sense, but it feels like the film knows that. It’s more reminiscent of the old Cold War paranoia films where flying saucers would come into shot dangling from fishing rods. Certainly more of an homage than a parody, there’s something about it that just feels heartwarming and that plays directly into the feelings that Nikki has about it. It’s easy to empathise with her finding some love for what is essentially just a floating piece of metal because it gives us enough to fall in love with it too.

There are moments where it can feel as if lines of dialogue or certain shots linger for half a second or so longer than they should, and that’s down to an issue with the way it’s edited. It isn’t an egregious problem or anything, but it is noticeable. That said, if this is the biggest issue that can be drawn with it then that’s not bad going.

What The UFO Girl does brilliantly well is so much more important, and that’s to make us feel nostalgia for a time that most of us wouldn’t have ever experienced first-hand. By blending elements of old and new in its visual style it creates something that feels unique while it gives us more than enough direction to work out what has inspired it. Coupled with such a sweet coming-of-age meets sci-fi story, it’s enough for anyone with half an interest in either genre to find something special.

The UFO Girl is everything we need it to be, and that’s quite a compliment given how much it packs into such a short runtime.