Stevie's Aliens
2018 · 16m · USA
Directed by Austin S. Harris
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, sci-fi
Tones: contemplative, tender, whimsical
A skeptical high school student is thrown into a night of adventure after he sees what he believes is a UFO, and he sets off with an odd new friend to summon it again. An NYU thesis film with a gentle, Spielbergian sensibility.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a competent Spielberg impression that knows exactly what it is, which is precisely the problem — a reverent pastiche when we're drowning in them, and the skepticism angle doesn't actually subvert anything, just delays the wonder.
Harris understands the grammar of Close Encounters deeply enough to rebuild it for a generation that questions rather than gapes, and that final shot — color, scale, sincerity — proves he's earned the grandiosity; it's a thesis film that knows its lineage and expands it.
The real work here is the decision to make skepticism the emotional core rather than the obstacle: that reframing, plus the score doing the heavy lifting on a modest suburban setup, is how a backyard UFO story becomes something that actually lands.
Reviews
The nearly 16-minute gentle sci-fi short ends on a sweeping, colorful shot with a grandiose score and feels like a cousin of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Festivals
- NFFTY (National Film Festival for Talented Youth) 2018, Best Cinematography
- Coney Island Film Festival 2018
- San Francisco Black Film Festival 2018
- DC Black Film Festival 2018
- NYU Tisch First Run Film Festival 2018