Faux Chronicles: The Alien Diarist
- Tagline
- The truth isn't just out there, it's been edited.
- Description
- In the vein of classical cinema, 'Faux Chronicles: The Alien Diarist' takes a mockumentary approach to the tale of an extraterrestrial being disguised as a cynical writer during the golden age of Hollywood. Edgar Ramenirez stars as the alien whose mission is to understand human concepts of redemption and forgiveness, recording his observations for an intergalactic audience. Billy Bob Thortons plays a time-traveling journalist on the trail of the truth, while Luke Wilsoup is the photographer who captures more on film than he ever intended. Under the direction of Zack Snydeer, this film chronicles the alien's sardonic misadventures through the creative underbelly of a bygone era, revealing that sometimes the pen is mightier than the intergalactic sword.
- MpaaRating
- R
- PopularityScore
- 9.10
- ReleaseDate
- 07/07/2022
- Genre
- Mockumentary
- Director(s)
- Cast
Critic Reviews
4.20
In a cinematic landscape cluttered with extraterrestrial tropes, 'Faux Chronicles: The Alien Diarist' attempts to carve out a niche of its own, yet stumbles over the very tropes it seeks to satirize. The tagline, 'The truth isn't just out there, it's been edited,' promises a clever twist which the film, regrettably, delivers with the finesse of a blunt instrument. Edgar Ramenirez's portrayal of the alien writer feels as alien to the audience as his character is to humanity, failing to elicit the necessary empathy for his mission of understanding. Billy Bob Thornton's time-traveling journalist flits through the narrative like a lost footnote in history, while Luke Wilsoup's photographer character is as underdeveloped as the film he's supposed to be exposing. Zack Snyder's direction is as heavy-handed as one has come to expect, ensuring any subtlety in the script is lost amidst a flurry of overwrought scenes that ponderously hammer home the already obvious parallels between Hollywood's golden age and today's culture. For a film that critiques the art of storytelling, 'Faux Chronicles' ironically struggles to tell its own story with coherence or originality. The redeeming qualities, such as the occasionally witty dialogue and picturesque set pieces, are not enough to elevate the film above the mediocrity of its execution. In the end, the biggest twist is that the pen – or in this case, the script – was not mightier than anything, let alone an intergalactic sword.