When Lucidia, orphaned after her mother drowned herself in the pool, disappears, she just might have been abducted by aliens, and so her goth friends set out to find her - that is to say, they party, experiment with drugs and vampirism, and have long philosophical conversations about what might have occurred. Aptly described as trippy, Spaceship has little narrative drive, but does manage to evoke the emotional disconnection of teenagers who long for experiences that the grim garrison town of Aldershot does not offer.
There are some fine performances from the teens, Tallulah Haddon and Lara Peake in particular, who capture their characters' goofiness and sadness and inspire some sympathy for their disconnected lives. There are also some beautiful set pieces, notably the fairground scene where they party in fluorescent makeup. Far from being pretentious, their deadpan discussions of alien abduction can be quite funny, as the characters are anything but down to earth. At times, there is a welcome restraint: the one or two sexual encounters are merely implied, as befits the emotional ambiguity in the relationships portrayed.
With its imaginary unicorns and black holes, this could have been a work of beguiling fantasy, but the adult characters are lacklustre (intentionally?) and some of the arty scenes, in which the youngsters dance strangely while gazing soulfully into the camera, are just embarrassing. While it does not matter so much that the dialogue sometimes makes no sense, it, and the cinematography, could have been better crafted, and the writer/director could have done just a little research: archaeology does not involve two blokes with garden spades digging a big pit in a forest - but it all adds to the weirdness.
Despite its faults, Spaceship drew me into its weird world, and I expect better from Alex Taylor in future.
There are some fine performances from the teens, Tallulah Haddon and Lara Peake in particular, who capture their characters' goofiness and sadness and inspire some sympathy for their disconnected lives. There are also some beautiful set pieces, notably the fairground scene where they party in fluorescent makeup. Far from being pretentious, their deadpan discussions of alien abduction can be quite funny, as the characters are anything but down to earth. At times, there is a welcome restraint: the one or two sexual encounters are merely implied, as befits the emotional ambiguity in the relationships portrayed.
With its imaginary unicorns and black holes, this could have been a work of beguiling fantasy, but the adult characters are lacklustre (intentionally?) and some of the arty scenes, in which the youngsters dance strangely while gazing soulfully into the camera, are just embarrassing. While it does not matter so much that the dialogue sometimes makes no sense, it, and the cinematography, could have been better crafted, and the writer/director could have done just a little research: archaeology does not involve two blokes with garden spades digging a big pit in a forest - but it all adds to the weirdness.
Despite its faults, Spaceship drew me into its weird world, and I expect better from Alex Taylor in future.