Elio, 2025.
Directed by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, and Domee Shi.
Featuring the voice talents of Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brandon Moon, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil, Young Dylan, Jake T. Getman, Matthias Schweighöfer, Ana de la Reguera, Atsuko Okatsuka, Shirley Henderson, Naomi Watanabe, Brendan Hunt, Anissa Borrego, Shelby Young, Bob Peterson, Kate Mulgrew, and Tamara Tunie.
SYNOPSIS:
Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination, finds himself on a cosmic misadventure where he must form new bonds with alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who he is truly meant to be.
Grieving the loss of his parents and unable to connect with other kids, Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) feels alone. He also happens to be obsessed with space and whether extraterrestrial life forms exist. Perhaps they will understand him more than his airbase control aunt, Olga (voiced by Zoe Saldaña), who is overworked and overwhelmed to the point where she wishes Elio would mellow out, change his interests, and be a bit more normal. Meanwhile, Elio is often at the beach writing messages in the sand, begging for aliens to abduct him.
More to the point, the concept of a child who wants aliens to take him away is a subversively amusing one that, in theory, should provide enough material and gags to build an entire narrative around. However, Elio is rushed and disjointed, coming across as multiple movies fighting for screen time, which is not ideal but instantly makes sense upon realizing that there are three codirectors here (Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, and Domee Shi) and an overcrowded screenplay team.
Disappointingly, there is also a whiff of desperation chasing the Pixar emotional highs of the past, which is unsuccessful considering the story and characters here are too simplistic and half-baked to elicit that reaction. It’s as if everyone came up with solid themes and ideas, but nothing that truly stands out.
Naturally, aliens do exist in the world of Elio. The hyperactive child successfully sneaks into the control room where his aunt (now his legal guardian, contemplating sending him to boarding school as he is a lot to handle and this is not how she envisioned her life) and puts out a message that he is the leader of Earth and ripped, among other things, and that they should get him.
The first 30 minutes is an awkward mad dash of exposition and setup in a hurry to get Elio to those aliens, who turn out to be a council of friendly intergalactic creatures struggling to deal with a rampaging warlord named Lord Grigon (voiced by Brad Garrett), a slug inside something resembling a mech suit. It’s a rite of passage that, when they come of age, they get their mechanical suit filled with weapons and start slaughtering other species for reasons both elusive and never fully explained. Nevertheless, Lord Grigon has a naïve, innocent son named Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly) who is just as odd and unique as Elio, and afraid to let down his father, as he wouldn’t be able to harm a fly, let alone go on murderous rampages.
There is also a far more interesting movie here, in that they can create clones of themselves to deceive their parents, using the doppelgänger as a means to gain approval from them while using their true selves to live life however they want. A better film would further analyze the mixed bag of emotions this would evoke in parents, whether it be the happiness that comes with some peace, or the inevitable sadness and potential guilt over not encouraging children to be themselves and embrace their uniqueness. The clones, like so much else here, are essentially a throwaway element.
Then there is the sweet, socially awkward chemistry between Elio and Glordon, deserving of a film more confident about what it wants to be. Since this is Pixar, the visuals themselves are spellbinding with imaginative extraterrestrial designs (they typically come across as fantastical creatures morphed into something more fittingly ugly and alien) and high-tech gadgetry (a digital manual made up of spiraling pages one touches, each containing information on navigating this world), but narratively Elio is in the bottom tier of their mostly stellar reputation.
Not without charm, the occasional funny moments, and a solid voiceover ensemble, Elio never escapes the feeling that a first draft, compiled from several ideas, made it to the screen without any rewrites, condensing, or the filmmakers settling on a cohesive approach to what to do with the concept of a child eager to meet aliens.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
