Spaceship review

A bold, visually striking but ultimately shallow movie about British teens from debut director Alex Taylor, this odd drama focuses on a group of psychedelic misfits who want to escape their mundane lives. One of their group, Lucidia (Davies) disappears one day and the kids wonder whether she has been taken by aliens, so fascinated are they by such possibilities, along with unicorns, black holes and other weirdnesses.

While it all looks trippy and hallucinatory – especially against the ordinary backdrops of the film’s locations in Aldershot and the surrounding area – Spaceship never really engages, partly because none of the characters are particularly likeable. There is some humour amongst the day-dreaminess – and quirky choices like having one of the characters pull another around like a dog on a lead – but for all its strangeness, it dawdles along, actors improvising dialogue into long, dull rambles that aren’t as interesting as they or the director think they are. Nice soundtrack, though.