The Bottom Line: Don’t miss this bawdy sci-fi thriller. Leder spins regular doses of sex, aliens and teen heroism into an unforgettable idiosyncratic comedic gem.
Extraterrestrial Noir opens on the night of a forecasted meteor shower in suburban New Jersey. The Devine family — husband Connie, wife Maggie, brother Danny and uber-intellectual 12-year-old daughter Mike – gather in the front yard in the hours before dawn to catch a glimpse of the predicted celestial fireworks. However, they get far more than they bargained for as, hours later, a rectangular object crashes from the sky and into their home.
Before the UFO found its way through their roof and down into their basement, the latter had served as a family entertainment center in which film noir – usually starring Alan Ladd or Veronica Lake – was the genre of choice. Soon, the Devines find themselves staring at a silver geometric alien figure that shapeshifts, hilariously, into the long-dead noir icons.
As you might guess, the alien becomes Alan or Veronica to get what it wants. And just what does it want, you might add? For starters, sex and money.
Author Rich Leder, whose storied career includes staff favorites Cooking for Cannibals and Workman’s Complication, as well as movies like Primal (starring Nick Cage), ventures into bawdy new territory with Extraterrestrial Noir. The novel works thanks to Leder’s meticulous drawing of the families living in their cul-de-sac, Hope Circle. Imagine the witty neighborly banter of Desperate Housewives’ Wisteria Lane, the sexual candor of Sex and the City and the absurd teenage heroism of Stranger Things rolled into one, and you’ll get the idea.
Leder’s Hope Circle backstories deliver a lot of sizzle (such as Carol’s two-time fling with Maggie), and seductions by alien incarnations of Lake and Ladd deliver a lot of steamy laughs (Ladd to Maggie: “I’m not eating you for breakfast. I’m having pancakes. Maybe some tequila first. Should I pour you one?”). An expert lover, Ladd-Lake knows how to push all the right buttons before uttering the unthinkable: “I know how to get more money…We rob Peter’s jewelry store.”
With the adults falling under the alien’s spell, it’s up to Mike – with a little assistance from Danny – to save them and the planet itself. Along the way, Leder drops entertaining cultural references to everyone from Bill Withers to Curt Cobain and the Ramones. The story is bookended by some surprisingly thoughtful scientific-and-philosophical insights on our place in the universe that add gravitas to the fun.
