“Screwball comedy reaches earth in black-and-white in CODEPENDENT LESBIAN SPACE ALIEN SEEKS SAME…Madeleine Olnek gets laughs and style out of interplanetary love. In a year when Sundance celebrated the king of those movies, Roger Corman, Madeleine Olnek has found a place in same satirical constellation. ”
— David D’Arcy,
“[A] witty ode to urban love and shoestring sci-fi…this enormously likable movie keeps sexual politics on the back burner and the universal search for connection front and center.”
— Jeannette Catsoulis,
“…hilarious…CODEPENDENT… charmed the pants off critics and audiences at the Sundance Film Festival where it world premiered. The film’s since gone on to slay at a slew of festivals.”
— Nigel Smith,
“Sweet, funny, clever comedy…Olnek’s sensibility is singular, and the work of the cast—notably the sweetfaced Haas and the hilariously robotic Ziegler—make for a movie that seeks, and earns, affection.”
— John Anderson,
“Inspired silliness—satisfyingly incongruous—and slyly subversive.”
— Melissa Anderson,
“Not down to earth at all (and all the better for it) was the wacky, Woody Allen—inspired CODEPENDENT LESBIAN SPACE ALIEN SEEKS SAME. You’d be hard pressed to find a flick more dedicated to its bizarre (and wonderful) vision this year.”
— Danielle Riendeau,
“The title reads like a personal ad from the Twilight Zone. But it actually refers to a family-friendly lesbian sci-fi movie…a distinctively indie film, it lightheartedly pokes fun at the underlying strangeness of our courtship rituals. ”
— Michelle Ong,
“…a black-and-white sci-fi retro-New York micro-budget completely absurdist independent comedy, which also manages to thoughtfully address the pain and confusion of sexual prejudice…Olnek has proven that she can make an important film without having to make a dramatic one.”
— Holly Herrick,
“You probably haven’t given the sexual orientation of aliens much thought lately, …[but] thankfully, director Madeleine Olnek (Hold Up, Countertransference) has done the thinking for you, and [has] come up with a film that mixes the best parts of 1950s B movies and New York City romantic comedies.”
— Jon Roth,
ABOUT THE FILM
LONG SYNOPSIS
CODEPENDENT LESBIAN SPACE ALIEN SEEKS SAME tracks the adventures, misadventures and experiences of three aliens from the planet Zots, sent down to Earth on a mission to rid themselves of romantic emotions, which are considered toxic to their planet’s atmosphere. They are told to have their hearts broken on Earth, where such heartbreak is considered a given. Two of the aliens, Zylar (promiscuous and sassy) and Barr (codependent and clutchy) fall into an unfortunate romance with each other, but Zoinx, the third, meets Jane, an Earthling of mild manners who lives an uneventful life and works in a stationery store. Unaware that the sudden object of her affection is an alien (despite her bald head and monotone speech), Jane falls hard for Zoinx. The feeling is mutual.
Meanwhile, two undercover government agents are following Jane in order to find the spaceship and cover up the existence of the aliens. The Senior Agent has been working for years, finding himself passed over again and again for promotions, for reasons he is too dense to understand. The Rookie Agent is mysterious and focused, and something is obviously different about him. Their bizarre, comical espionage is another of the film’s odd couplings, and reveals itself to be something other than what it seems. By film’s end, the espionage car has one less agent, and the spaceship has one more commuter, in this original mash-up of a lo-fi New York City romantic comedy and a sci-fi B-movie spoof.
Producers Laura Terruso, Madeleine Olnek
Co-Producer Cynthia Fredette
Editor Curtis Grout
Cinematographer Nat Bouman
Production Designer Rebecca Conroy
Sound Allan Gus
Music Clay Drinko
Cast Lisa Haas, Jackie Monahan, Susan Ziegler, Alex Karpovsky, Dennis Davis, Cynthia Kaplan, Rae C. Wright
FESTIVALS
Sundance 2011, Seattle International 2011
FESTIVAL TERRITORIES
The World
EXHIBITION FORMATS
HDCAM, Digibeta, Blu-Ray, DVD
PRESS KIT
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AVAILABLE PRESS IMAGES (click to preview)
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DIALOGUE LIST
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