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What an absolute gem. Or a magical space crystal?

I’d heard the When Harry Met Sally comparisons and it most certainly is a scifi version of that, and yet the comparison undersells how charming and involving this is on its own terms.

Teeming with low-budget but effective, fun and visually arresting special effects framing the two leads at all times in a world of intergalactic slice-of-life and within the light of cosmic gods had me giddy on top of the feathers I felt for these two bumping against one another throughout. The visual variety and style of the film makes it stand out from other WHM, while expanding the scope to something grander both internally and externally than it should be in a romantic comedy between two people who just talk to each other in each and every single scene.

The two leads are the biggest spectacle of them all of course in a film like this, with Zosia Mamet as Molli slightly edging out Aristotle Athari (what a name!) as Max in terms of screen time, though they are always a whole together even when apart onscreen. They are the film in every sense and a lot rests on their shoulders since the film is not content with just being cute. I’m not exactly an acting aficionado as many film buffs, as it’s a craft that I admire and champion more than seek out in the medium, but these two remind you of the absolute pleasures two actors at the top of their game in perfectly fitting roles can bring to the medium.

Zosia’s Molli is a more emotional and volatile person with big unspoken dreams of magic and being greater than she is while only seeking out passive ways to make those dreams a reality. Meanwhile Aristotle’s Max is a reserved but affirming presence who DOES seek out his passions and puts them to work in ways that become automatic and obviously lack spirit as time goes on, afraid to confront and express his own emotions more than fighting in a giant robot. Together they freely share their thoughts, opinions, strengths and weaknesses for each other in ways few people get to, going from space strangers, to space friends to being so intimately present for one another in the things that matter that they don’t know where to go from there without breaking what good they’ve got going on… in space.

All of this framed within both highly absurd and visually arresting cosmic science fiction that brings most of the levity for them to bounce off of and have fun with both in character and as actors. The two of them almost winking at the camera in their interactions with the green-screened reality they inhabit and enthusiastically hocking in-universe merch straight out of Rick & Morty and Futurama.

The clothes and creatures are very theater-esque and cheap looking for a film, but it only adds to the charm that makes it feel tactile and textured in a way that computer effects can’t replicate ON people and for them to interact with. You can tell someone put a lot of actual manual work in to make it work. The environments are also held up by really cute miniature models, but the real champion of cohesion between the physical and digital limits is the mood-heavy, saturated lighting. Matching the two lead’s interiority to create a real emotional and tactile space within all that charming artificiality.

Also, the Phil Tippet-esque stop motion robots with anime motion lines really, really, really brought the biggest smile to my face every single time.

The other element of artificiality on top of everything that plays both into the dramatic and comedic strengths of this are the title cards and aspect ratios. Some of the cards are a bit too cute for me (“five seconds later”), but most of them do the job and help propel things as well as draw lines in the sand about where these two are as people. The biggest strength of the two being the aspect ratio changes, like when signaling a flashback with a much narrower frame to give us a sense of focused hindsight and bringing us back to fully immersive reality when we cut back to Molli and Max in the widest aspect ratio, discussing what we just saw in their pasts between their meetings.

My favorite use of it being in the third act where a literal demon winning the universe’s elections has the characters yearn for the past and they become emotionally trapped and detached to their new reality, with the aspect ratio matches that yearning and claustrophobia (with full in-character acknowledgment, of course).

I could have spent more time with these two as you start to get invested in their hopefully-a-lifetime-together as you would with a partner, but the 90 minute runtime is a welcome one, creating a hunger and yearning that it seems to hope you carry back into your every day life.

Guess I’ll put that hunger and yearning into more time with my wonderful, perfect partner then

💙🧡