Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: INTO THE SKY [Fantastic Fest - Austin, Texas]
The context of abduction storytelling usually plays to the gory or psychological. “Into The Sky” [World Premiere] pushes it in the other side with some edgy bits as well. Sam Richardson (known from “Ted Lasso”) plays Bobby, a man we first see dropped naked into a field in North Caroline. The film could go one way but it goes another. We are not really given a time line until a bit down the road which speaks to Bobby's discombobulation but not the reason. He comes back to find his wife gone and his house rented to an event planner Nico (a charming and cute Phoebe Cates-like Sophie Black D'Elia) who is planning a wedding for her brother but seems out of sorts, pissed, dominating and yet dominated all in the same breath. Bobby doesn’t know what is going on but is able to piece certain things together. Nico plays it coyly and yet upfront. She is hiding something so it ought be the fact that she has been lying to her family and doesn’t have a job.
Richardson plays Bobby inquisitive and aloof and it is a nice back and forth. But what anchors the film but also throws it in a different direction is David Cross. Like Joey Pants in anything, Cross makes this character his own but also slightly off-kilter. He is a fellow abductee that has taken it to the next level but you can never tell whether he is a good guy or just bonkers. He is bit defeated that is for sure but he does have some technical know how (granted his truck looks like Mr. Wizard back in the day). Writer/Directors Evan Wolf Buxbaum and Drew Mylrea play this as a human story and keep the effects budget conscious (especially Richardson being taken — which must have been fun or not on set). The final set piece blends rom-com with "Fire In The Sky" but there are enough goofy characters to make the tone work. Again "Into The Sky" is quite campy and goofy while having fun with its story. But despite a cute and alluring performance by Black D”Elia and just manic mania by the always entertaining Cross, the story doesn't move the needle that far. 74%/C+
By Tim Wassberg
