Filmmaker Ward Roberts wears many hats in the Sci-Fi comedy feature film Invaders from Proxima B that landed in the Austin Film Festival for the World Premiere. Roberts is the writer/director of the funny and very family-friendly story about an alien who lands in the backyard of the Jankins family. Roberts (The Nice Guys, “Westworld” TV series) (The Nice Guys, “Westworld” TV series) also stars as Howie Jankins, who has just come home from a music tour.
Howie (Roberts) is a married musician with a wife, Jane (Samantha Sloyan), and a daughter, Ruby (Bo Roberts). He wakes up that evening to a bright light approaching their home. He doesn’t believe what he sees and less what he hears. Jane doesn’t believe him when he relays the story. Jane has called an exterminator because she thinks there is a rodent problem. Jeremiah Birkett (Nathan Droogal) is a company man very engaged in his work of getting rid of vermin. He is hilarious and determined.
Usually, any sign of aircraft (or something else) over the U. S. airspace is monitored every moment daily. In this film, we must suspend the belief that no Federal or local law enforcement agency saw a shooting fireball mass across the sky and land in someone’s yard. No staff inquired about it. On the contrary, some random individuals come to the home for various reasons. This phenomenon becomes quite the adventure in the story, and it is one I hope not to spoil.
The “alien” in the spaceship introduces himself as “Chuck.” Trying to keep Chuck hidden is more than Howie can handle. Ester Terrestrial (Sarah Lassez) is in a green van and is first to approach Howie outside the home to inquire about seeing anything strange. Then, two men show up to snoop around the property: Willy Felson (Richard Riehle) and his son, Marvin (Mike C. Nelson). They report to HQ, run by Lulu Felson (Jan Hoag) and co-worker Omar (Ramiz Monsef). The two men say they have contact with another entity. They know Ester, so they are trying to beat her to find out what landed. Ester has her reasons for locating the vessel and who is driving it.
Ultimately, the Jankins family must work together to save Chuck from a trio of dangerous thugs (played by Jhey Castles, Travis Betz, and Aaron Gaffey).
There is plenty of action some fantastic costumes, and the comedy is fun for the family. This movie isn’t the filmmaker’s first film, but this feature film has me looking forward to his following projects.
The next AFF screening will be on November 2nd at the Galaxy Theater at 6 p.m.
Source: Drexel Box Productions