Allen review – what would happen if ET came back for Elliott as an adult? Turns out nothing great
This twist on convention is enough to pique our interest, but not to sustain it: Allen ultimately feels like a facsimile of countless other films, beholden to, rather than liberated from, formula.
Key points
- This good-natured if relentlessly unsubtle family film from Netflix and the studio behind Bluey relies on a cute alien with no personality It’s important for stories about magical formative experiences to make the point that time marches forward.
- Instead of following a child who befriends a cute little alien then grows into a man enriched by the brief relationship, that child becomes a manchild – unable to move on and haunted by the feeling that his best days are behind him.
- It’s not just about the passage of time, but the melancholic act of saying goodbye – the child moving on, the experience imprinted on to their psyches.
Puff the Magic Dragon slinks back into his cave; Max bids farewell to the Wild Things and returns home; the snowman melts, leaving behind only a hat and scarf.
Allen, the first live-action feature from Ludo Studio – the production company behind a little show called Bluey – has a quirky point of difference.
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