The past decade contained no shortage of apocalypse films. Indeed, there were so many of them they have begun to feel kitsch. Still, it is unlikely that the makers of Save Yourselves! anticipated the resonances their film would have in 2020. 

Here, the world is taken over by aliens while a hapless Brooklyn couple is stuck upstate at a country house. New York City is infested with aliens, and nowhere is safe. Though this setup contains a dollop of death and destruction, it is not especially grim.

The aliens, though dangerous, resemble giant, furry ottomans and make strange noises. With the aid of a thin, red tongue that shoots out of them like a lasso, they catapult themselves from place to place. One is reminded, vaguely, of the alien race of blancmanges from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Though disaster films, no matter how well executed, might feel a little too real right now, this one is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Contagion. 

Su (Sunita Mani) and Jack (John Reynolds, both effectively deadpan) are not especially smart, but in their supreme earnestness, they are lovable. They live in Greenpoint among the hip and not very bright, and are beyond addicted to technology. They sit together in their living room glued to their phones. Their first argument involves tabs on Su’s computer, which Jack did not restore. They will even let notifications on their phones interrupt sex.

When they run into an old friend (High Maintenance’s Ben Sinclair) at a party, he suggests they stay in his house upstate for a week while he leaves for South America, and they decide the country life is exactly what they need. They resolve to disconnect from the internet and change their lives completely, though they don’t have a clear idea of what this means exactly. They are blissfully unaware of the alien invasion when it hits, and once it has become impossible to ignore, they realize how inconvenient it was to disconnect from the world. 

Much of the comedy comes from watching these two try to make decisions and solve problems, besides handling the alien invasion. They are hopelessly sweet, well-intentioned, and can barely function without the internet. In their hands, deciding how to spend this week away is hopelessly complex. The movie is as much about their relationship deepening as it is about them handling their absurd situation. Still, they are caricatures. The satire is in broad strokes, and viewers’ enjoyment of it will depend on how amused they are by the director’s take on young Brooklynites. 

While the film is amusing, it loses some steam by the second half, and this viewer lost some patience with these characters and their repetitive dumbness. The writers place too much faith in the recurring gag of the couple having no practical life skills. By the time the two are trying to escape from the aliens, it turns out Jack can’t drive stick, and our laughter has worn thin. Nevertheless, the ending is a genuine surprise. We might be incapable of saving ourselves, the film seems to say, but that does not mean we will not be saved.