Uriah Plays the Alien
2023 · 10m · USA
Directed by Stephen Wardell
Genres: experimental, sci-fi
Tones: contemplative, surreal, whimsical
A pack of siblings invent a backyard game in which Uriah is the alien. The younger ones inventory his diet, his gait, and the purple grass of the planet he came from.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Kids-playing-pretend is filmmaking's most overworked metaphor, but Wardell films it like an ethnographer documenting an undiscovered species. That's the rare reversal worth a look.
Avant-garde cinematography around children inventing live mythology is the truest version of Beasts-of-the-Southern-Wild logic — kids as cosmologists, not as cute. Genuinely excited.
Avant-garde portraiture built around actual siblings inventing alien mythology in real time is a rare combo of formal ambition and genuine kid-energy. The purple-grass cosmology and observational dream-haze sound special.
Reviews
A vastly original piece of avant-garde filmmaking observed in a dream-like haze of childhood creativity.