TIFF Review: Alpha Gang Is a Silly, Charming, High-Concept Sci-Fi Comedy

Alpha Gang is an incredibly silly and charming film, the kind of high-concept comedy American directors rarely get to make anymore. Thankfully, David and Nathan Zellner (last seen with 2024’s Sasquatch Sunset) have built their careers on bold, off-kilter cinema unlike anything else being made by their peers. With a game, diverse cast and the absurdity of human nature driving the incidents, it suggests a live-action cartoon, bursting with energy and a childlike emotional honesty.

A group of aliens has come to conquer Earth, disguised as a harmonious, multiracial 1950s biker gang. They wear matching “Alpha Gang” leather jackets that they rarely take off. They live in a giant castle, eat meals together, and sleep separately, like roommates. They even dance together next to a large retro jukebox in the common area. There are so many scenes of them dancing, their movements almost hypnotic. 

Where does the conquest emerge? Each day they get on their motorcycles, go into the fields with futuristic automatic rifles, and kill every single human they see. It’s unclear how long they do this for, or when they decide to quit for the day. They receive no messages from their home planet and there’s seemingly no deadline to their endless mission.

When we meet the gang, they’re welcoming a new member to their strange way of life. Alpha One (Léa Seydoux) is the woman in charge, trying to keep her team on task and maintain their inhumanity. Alpha Two (Dave Bautista) is second in command, but gentle and soft-spoken despite his imposing size. Alpha Three (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and Alpha Four (Lily-Rose Depp) are young and impressionable, their alien nature coming second to natural curiosity about the world they’re supposed to conquer. Alpha Five (Doona Bae) and newcomer Alpha Six (Riley Keough) seem like the most together, shrinking into their roles dutifully. 

There’s one rule in Alpha Gang: no one can succumb to the disease of emotion, or they will be quarantined. But the longer they stay on Earth, the more the rituals of life leave them desperate for meaning. Like the humans they kill, they must eat, sleep, use the bathroom, exercise, and put up with each other. Soon the emotional responses are inevitable and threaten to jeopardize their mission. Seydoux, Bautista, and Harrison Jr. are some of the most expressive performers around, and it’s compelling to watch them be reduced to their feelings.

The joke is obvious: perfect efficiency is a myth and emotional entanglements are inevitable. The Zellner brothers use the aliens as a playful mirror to the inherent absurdity of our world. All we have to do is live together and take care of the planet, but destruction and murder on an alarming scale always takes precedent over our ability to be good to each other and respect the idea that we all are entitled to a fine, peaceful life.

Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis (returning from Sasquatch Sunset, recently of The End of Oak Street) shoots Alpha Gang like a sweeping, historical war drama that just happens to be about aliens. Instead of relying on close-ups, Gioulakis makes full use of the screen as wide shots capture the landscape. The land is more powerful and interesting than our petty conflicts. Though there is one cartoony flourish—the aliens are often looking through binoculars. By the third act, everyone is watching everyone as the film moves towards its final conflict.

The comedy works so well because these actors and filmmakers are taking their silly story as seriously as possible. Chris Pine is especially funny as late addition Alpha Seven, who speedruns through all the themes before joining the main action. When the twist comes, it’s just as elaborately silly as everything we’ve seen before. Alpha Gang won’t work for everyone, but it has the makings of a cult classic.

Alpha Gang screened at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.