PG-13 for cowboys, aliens
Hollywood often makes light of serious issues, from genocide to war to the hardship of raising penguins in an urban setting. So it’s nice to see the film industry finally take seriously the age-old question of cowboys and aliens.
Since time immemorial, scholars have wondered: cowboys? Aliens? Both, somehow? And finally we have a film that gives this issue the stern, humorless treatment that it deserves. No nonsense, no jokes, just a craggy-faced hero on a craggy landscape. At long last, a summer flick for all ages of people who hate fun, a film that never sinks into that worst of cinematic quagmires: lightheartedness.
Cowboys and aliens. Huzzah.—Ben Orlin
