Fantastic Fest Review: Drones
In a festival filled with brutality and and splatter effects, one might think a straightforward rom-com would get lost in the gore. But Drones was not only a refreshing break, but stands on its own as a witty tale of an office romance with a twist ... aliens.
Yes, aliens. Yet the film contains no CGI, no prosthetics or special cosmetics, just a guy and a gal and impending alien invasions. "Boy meets girl but she's an alien" is not a new plot device, but writers Ben Acker and Ben Blacker capture interpersonal dynamics with dry wit while embedding a science-fiction theme within a very typical office, although with a very unusual copy machine.
Brian (Jonathan M. Woodward, Firefly) is a dedicated worker bee of an office drone, who has a crush on Amy (Angela Bettis, May) across the aisle. Brian's best friend and coworker Clark (Samm Levine, Inglourious Basterds) pushes Brian into finally asking Amy out. Things get complicated when Brian finds that his girlfriend isn't just out of this world, she's from out of this world. And so is his best friend.
In an cubicle farm where PowerPoint presentations are king, and the manager (James Urbaniak, American Splendor) is focused on productivity and corporate speak, it's easy for aliens to hide out. There are plenty of characters to hide among, including the ponytailed new age king of positivity, Cooperman (Dave Allen, Freaks and Geeks), who is determined to get Corporate to change the database back to chronological listings, Ian and Miryam (Marc Evan Jackson and Tangi Miller) the office on-again/off-again couple, and a whole army of drones who find themselves caught between two galactic empires.
Drones is a truly independent film with a microbudget. Using simple sets only within an office setting, the focus is on the characters. Ben Acker and Ben Blacker wrote the script in one week, and the shoot itself was only two weeks long. Directors Amber Benson and Adam Busch split duties, with Benson working the technical side with cameras and setups and Busch focusing on the actors. While it may be his first time as a director, Busch does an outstanding job, with his actors delivering fast paced, witty dialogue as smoothly as a cast that had more than two weeks production time. Benson has been expanding her film career behind the camera for several years.
Benson and Busch may be better known for their forays in front of the screen, particularly on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (where his character killed hers). Both relied on friends to fill out the cast, and what a cast it is. Perhaps my favorite is Dave Allen as Cooperman, the hippie in a sweater vest who doesn't quite fit in, yet is always positive and often supernaturally productive without seeming rushed. But Allen isn't the only outstanding performance in this strong ensemble. Angela Bettis is always superb, and why Woodward doesn't get more prominent roles is beyond me. Every time I hear Woodward's voice I remember his soliloquy from the Firefly episode "The Message."
Plenty of comedies on the big screen and small make fun of office dynamics, and Drones isn't trying to compete with them. Instead, Drones takes a very simple concept, and embellishes it with rapid-fire dialogue and a great cast chemistry that produces a refreshing feature that does exactly what it set out to do: send up office romances with a very engaging cast that will leave audiences smiling -- and wondering about their own office copy machines.