World Premiere
Underground

The Becomers

Directed by Zach Clark

Hosted by Director Zach Clark, Producer Eddie Linker.

Credits  

Director

Zach Clark

Producer

Eddie Linker, Joe Swanberg

Writer

Zach Clark

Cast

Isabel Alamin, Keith Kelly, Mike Lopez, Russell Mael, Molly Plunk

Cinematographer

Daryl Pittman

Composer

Fritz Myers

Editor

Zach Clark

contact

The Becomers

USA 2023 86 mins OV English

Back to Fantasia for the first time since the 2016 premiere of LITTLE SISTER, director Zach Clark goes extraterrestrial with his latest, THE BECOMERS. Opening with a shot of planet Earth, a voice describes meeting their lover for the first time. “I remember how pretty and pale they looked, standing in the sulphur rain,” they intone. Part science fiction and part road movie, THE BECOMERS is a genre-bending romantic tale of two body-swapping aliens trying to find their place on this big, dumb planet. The film mines an American landscape increasingly beset by uncertainty and violence to capture a real sense of unease and dread underlying the surface of public life. With its fun, lo-fi effects and singular strangeness, THE BECOMERS will make you laugh, cringe, and yearn — all in the same breath.

One of the great indie American filmmakers of the past two decades, with THE BECOMERS, Clark continues his exploration of social outcasts, unconventional families and fractured American identity. Without losing touch with his melancholic streak, THE BECOMERS feels like Clark's most hopeful film as love blooms against impossible odds. Adopting an alien POV, the movie rediscovers the human experience through new eyes, from the absurdity of politics to the delicate limits of our physical bodies (featuring delicious, Cronenbergian body horror). THE BECOMERS stars Molly Plunk (LITTLE SISTER) and Mike Lopez (ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS), and features the voice of Russell Mael, lead singer of pop-rock band Sparks. – Justine Smith