WE ARE ALIENS Discovery

Previously known for his work on animated music videos for bands including J-pop duo YOASOBI, writer-director Kohei Kadowaki’s feature debut is an astonishingly layered, heart-wrenchingly tender portrait of a tumultuous, life-changing friendship. Structured as a diptych spanning from pre-teen to young adulthood, we follow the lonely but measured Tsubasa and the spirited yet sometimes erratic Gyotaro as they forge a burgeoning friendship born out of classroom mischief and after-school playdates. As the boys mature and their clashing personalities begin to cause a growing rift, a cruel accusation one afternoon irrevocably splinters the trajectory of their lives in unimaginable ways. Utilizing a hybrid rotoscope and hand-drawn animation technique in expressive detail, Kadowaki’s boys come to life in intricately rendered pencil-textured outlines against gorgeously atmospheric backdrops reminiscent of the works of Makoto Shinkai, from the sun-dappled countryside to the moonlit corners of metropolitan Tokyo. Delicately attuned to the seismic consequences of seemingly trivial growing pains, WE ARE ALIENS examines the pure naivete of boyhood and the malleability of adolescence with shattering honesty and brutality. –Anna Li