When Wonder Is More Powerful Than Logic

Read Time:5 Minute, 31 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Watch the Skies
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Year Released: 2022, 2025
Runtime: 1h 56m
Director(s): Crazy Pictures
Writer(s): Jimmy Nivrén Olsson, Crazy Pictures
Cast: Inez Dahl Torhaug, Jesper Barkselius, Sara Shirpey, Eva Melander, Håkan Ehn, Isabelle Kyed, Mathias Lithner, Niklas Kvarnbo Jönsson, Oscar Töringe, Lilly Lexfors, Lotta Källström
Where to Watch: releases in select theaters May 9, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: Now and then, a project comes along that doesn’t try to win you over with extravaganza—it simply asks you to consider the possibility of the unknown. WATCH THE SKIES taps into the enduring curiosity surrounding unexplained phenomena, but its real strength lies in its character-driven storytelling. It doesn’t lean heavily on special effects or genre tropes to make its case; instead, it puts human connection, memory, and belief at the forefront of its narrative. The result is a film that feels personal, sometimes clumsy, but undeniably sincere.

Set during the 1990s and steeped in analog culture, the story follows a teenager named Denise who believes her father vanished under extraordinary circumstances. Her pursuit of the truth unfolds within a world that still runs on floppy disks, boxy CRT monitors, and dial-up modems—tools that now seem aged, but here serve as meaningful extensions of the characters' worldviews. Denise’s skills as a hacker and her instinct to challenge authority aren’t mere embellishments; they reinforce her inner turmoil and refusal to accept a narrative everyone else has long since buried.

The film's emotional center emerges through her evolving dynamic with Lennart, a man who shares her past but not necessarily her convictions. He’s spent years trying to forget what Denise is trying to prove, and their connection isn’t rooted in sentimentality—it’s built from mutual damage. Watching them slowly trust one another again provides the kind of understated arc that grounds the film’s more fantastic elements. These moments of reluctant vulnerability give the movie a real emotional texture, even when the surrounding narrative starts to lose focus.

WATCH THE SKIES isn’t afraid to let its characters exist in awkward, contradictory spaces. The UFO association Denise turns to for help is a collective of eccentric personalities more concerned with coffee breaks than cosmic contact. But there’s a strange comfort in their disorganization, and their slow shift toward taking her seriously mirrors the audience’s gradual investment in her cause. While their comedic timing occasionally undercuts the story’s emotion, they’re never used as throwaway gags. Instead, they reflect a very human reluctance to believe in anything that doesn’t come with proof.

That balancing act—between the skeptical and the hopeful—is a constant throughout the film, though not always cleanly handled. Tonal shifts sometimes feel jarring. In one scene, there’s understated dramatic tension; in the next, over-the-top antics threaten to pull the rug out. These fluctuations can be frustrating, especially when the film seems unsure whether it wants to be a character study, a slow-burn mystery, or a tongue-in-cheek adventure. While it’s commendable that the story takes creative risks, a bit more consistency in tone would’ve helped solidify the experience.

Special effects are minimal and used with restraint—a smart move, considering their impact relies on believability within the film’s grounded tone. Rather than overwhelming viewers with visuals, the film opts to preserve its emotional core, which is more about uncertainty and longing than alien spectacle. The score does its job, amplifying key moments without overpowering them. It's composed with just enough nuance to support the onscreen action but never demands attention.

The movie resonates by portraying belief as a coping mechanism and an act of rebellion. Denise isn’t chasing fame, attention, or any grand revelation—she’s looking for answers about her father, yes, but also for meaning in a world that seems determined to brush past her. The story doesn’t mock her for this pursuit or use it as a setup for disappointment. Instead, it takes her quest seriously, and that authenticity helps carry the film through its rougher spots.

At times, WATCH THE SKIES seems uncertain about its audience. Some sequences feel built for younger viewers with their broad humor and cartoonish side characters. In contrast, others wrestle with themes like grief, betrayal, and institutional failure, which suggest a more mature audience. That lack of clarity doesn’t ruin the film, but it does muddle its identity and occasionally undercuts its momentum. A more confident sense of direction would have helped stitch together the film’s disparate elements.

WATCH THE SKIES doesn’t offer a perfect viewing experience, but it provides a sincere one. It has narrative gaps, uneven pacing, and tonal mismatches, but it also has purpose, personality, and heart. It doesn’t need to rewrite genre history to be valuable. Sometimes, what matters most is that a film stays true to the story it wants to tell—and here, that story is about not giving up on belief, even when the world tells you to move on.

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[photo courtesy of XYZ FILMS, CRAZY PICTURES, FILM I VÄST, SF STUDIOS, SVERIGES TELEVISION (SVT), REINVENT STUDIOS]

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