Final Rating: 3.5/5
Boys Go To Jupiter is the debut feature film from animator Julian Glander. Featuring visuals and a cast list consisting of a who’s-who of indie comedians, Glander’s film creates a bizarre and memorable world to explore gig work and isolation.
Jupiter follows a sixteen-year-old high-school dropout named Billy 5000 (Jack Corbett) who has recently started working for Grubster, an Uber-Eats style delivery app. By exploiting a loophole in Grubster’s payment system, Billy has discovered he can make seven times the usual pay per delivery and decides to take on as many deliveries as he can to earn $5000 before the exploit is patched.
Thematically, Jupiter is a movie about the alienation of the gig economy and hustle culture. The opening scene sees Billy in the background while his friends encounter an alien. Billy, completely oblivious, runs off after a few minutes, because “there’s an easy pickup down the road.” As he takes off and the opening credits play, they’re underscored by a podcast called “Next Level Money with Mr. Moolah” (performed by the incomparable Demi Adejuyigbe).
The world Billy inhabits is inventive and surreal. Humans come in a variety of shapes, both humanoid and more abstract. There are multiple houses with the same address. There’s an entire subplot about a spaghetti-obsessed alien from deep inside the earth and her several lost children (they’re on vacation).
Billy, of course, doesn’t care about any of that. He just wants to make money. Counterintuitively, Billy’s disinterest in the world gives director Julian Glander more opportunities to flesh it out around him.
Jupiter largely plays out as a series of vaguely connected vignettes, giving each character just enough time to make an impression before Billy moves on. There’s Dr. Dolphin (Janeane Garofalo), a woman who runs the local orange grove/juice factory, is only ever seen through a screen, and may or may not be part dolphin.
There’s Weenie (Chris Fleming), a secretive man who runs a hot dog stand which is also home to a giant, roof-mounted World’s* Largest Hot-Dog. He maintains that his hot dogs are the best in town, but that people only come to see the roadside attraction. Herschel Cretaceous (Joe Pera) is a mini-golf course owner who recently buried his father under the eighteenth hole in fulfillment of his final wishes.
Seeing the various oddball characters present in Jupiter emphasizes the film’s approach to loneliness and isolation. Even when Billy does interact with one of his customers outside of his work, it’s just to ask for money. The worst part is that Billy’s goal of $5000 isn’t even for any specific purpose – it’s just the number he picked.
Jupiter is brought to life with Glander’s unusual style of 3D animation, evocative of isometric videogames. The character designs are blocky and imperfect but varied enough to read as abstract. Locations are meticulously designed, often with lots of little environmental details for eagle-eyed viewers. The animation falters a bit when Glander sets scenes in non-descript environments, like space. Some extended flashback sequences are particularly frustrating to follow.
As Billy flits between customers, Jupiter ends up feeling more observational than commentative. Glander’s world gives a glimpse into his mind and lets the audience decide where to go from there.
Thank you to Cartuna, Irony Point and Exile PR for the screener.
