Boys Go To Jupiter

Bluesky

If you ask Hollywood, teenage life is mostly about acquiring the right fabulous wardrobe, becoming brilliant at sports, going on adventures in a car, going to pool parties and prom, and falling in love with somebody whose presence on one’s arm attracts the envy of others. This may sound like fun, but it’s on a different planet from the more common teenage experience of sitting about in the middle of nowhere wishing that there was anything at all to do. Julian Glander’s meandering animated fable follows a group of kids in suburban Florida for whom genetic engineering, alien visitors, bizarre local legends about pacts with dolphins, and the death throes of late stage capitalism are all much of a muchness, the backdrop to a slow process of growing up and growing apart.

Animated using free software Blender (the same package behind Oscar winning fable Flow), Boys Go To Jupiter, which is screening as part of the 2025 Glasgow Film Festival, keeps things simple in terms of both story and style. The nuance is in the characterisation, the writing and acting. It’s full of observational humour and social satire, much of which appears to go over the heads of its young protagonists. They’re not a particularly sophisticated bunch; the first time they see the worm-like alien creature, Glarba (Tavi Gevinson), one of them attacks it with a stick, prompting it to burrow into the sand in a panic. This is treated as a triumph until they realise that they may have missed an opportunity to be on TV.

Whilst the others are distracted by activities like this, making up rap songs and engaging in petty theft, the eldest, Billy 5000 (Jack Corbett), is making a pointed effort to move on with life. He’s working for dodgy food delivery agency Grubster and thinks he has discovered a way to get rich (in teenage boy terms) by playing the system. He has no time for childish things, says “Sleep is for rich people.” Accompanying him on his travels, we get a tour of the area: the dinosaur-themed mini golf centre owned by Herschel Cretaceous; the egg farm at 87 Coral Road, where the chickens are incubating golf balls; Dolphin Groves fruit science company, the experimental juice company around which the local economy revolves. At the latter he hangs out with Rozebud (Miya Folick), the unwilling heir apparent, and makes some strange discoveries. Later, he finds a strange little creature shaped like a doughnut, which seems to imprint on him. It is perhaps this experience that will change him the most.

Proceeding at a leisurely pace, the story occasionally gives way to musings on specific aspects of Florida culture as they might might be perceived by a studious outsider. Particular forms of language developed for advertising and influencer videos are used to good effect. There’s a look at the state’s obsession with inventing new forms of juice drink, and reflections on how, for some people, food just cannot get convenient enough. All this is delivered in the bright pastels associated with tropical holiday marketing. The world is too neat and too clean, everything natural carefully kept at bay, stranding the boys, who keep being moved along, in spaces which have no connection to instinct or origin. When, at the end, Billy is faced with a big decision, one can understand the temptation he feels.

Though likely a little too whimsical for some, Boys Go To Jupiter seems destined to develop a cult following. It may be gentle, but it’s bold, and it speaks to a generation growing up with alienation as a basic fact of life.