He's going back to his home planet one drink at a time.
Phil the alien is a classic coming-of-age story, told through the bloodshot eyes of an alcoholic alien. Phil (Rob Stefaniuk) crashes into a small town in Northern Ontario, befriends a young boy, and a super-intelligent beaver (Ron Stefaniuk), and quickly develops a heavy drinking problem. Phil is an innocent lost in the wilderness. He learns that everyone in town (children included) drinks hard liquor and carries a gun. Surrounded by hunters, prostitutes, an ex-CIA operative, a bartender named Wolf (Graham Greene) and other northern misfits, Phil becomes close with the local bar band.
Meanwhile over at the "Top Secret American UFO Base" (located beneath the Niagara Falls), "The General" (John Kapelos) has discovered Phil and ordered his Agents to bring him in. Right wing radicals in fur coats are sent to find and capture Phil. Back up north, the beaver tells Phil that there is a ship in Niagara Falls that can take him home. Phil wants nothing to do with it. Instead he uses his alien powers to perform bar tricks, falling deep into the depraved depths of alcoholism. Phil hits bottom and attacks a cigarette machine.
After a short stint in prison, Phil finds Jesus and joins the band as their singer. When the General learns that Phil is performing miracles on a touring pilgrimage to Niagara Falls he orders Quebecois assassin Madame Madame (Nicole de Boer) to kill the alien and his band.
Special Agent Matti
Apparently, and I have this on good authority, Canadians spent a great deal of their time sitting around drinking - I don't mean weak, pissy beer, I'm talking spirituous liquor here - and they do it a lot. If not in great quality then certainly in great quantity. Perhaps that explains why they could invent a sport like Murderball. Or a comedian like Rob Stefaniuk. The drunker you are, the funnier he gets. Perhaps you should play the drink-along game: pick a character from the film, then every time they drink on screen, you have to drink, too. Trust me, it will help.
M (Frequent coarse language, adult themes, moderate violence)
83 minutes (1:23 hours)
DVD rental: 14 December 2005
VHS rental: 14 December 2005
