Lesbian Space Aliens Invade NYC!

March 28, 2022

You think your Tinder dates are bad? Try finding love as a lesbian who just landed in pre-dating app NYC via flying saucer. That was the insane on-screen reality for a trio of extraterrestrial characters in the 2012 indie rom-com “Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same.” As a hilarious homage to 1950s sci-fi flicks, low-budget B-movies, and urban romance, the cult classic of modern queer cinema reveals that U-hauling with a UFO is even harder than it looks.

The film follows three aliens tasked to find heartbreak on Earth in order to save their home planet – whose inhabitants believe that romantic feelings are the cause behind its depleting ozone. Between a quirky fling with an unsuspecting stationary store employee, unhinged intergalactic love triangles, and men in black lurking on Manhattan’s city streets, the space invaders unveil laughable yet universal life lessons of love and belonging. A decade after its release, writer and director Madeleine Olnek reflects on the feature-length debut that skyrocketed her cinematic career and won the hearts of lesbians all over the world – and beyond.

Interview by Megan Hein
Photos by Nat Bouman

All of Madeleine Olnek’s feature films – including 'Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same' – are now available to rent on Amazon. You can also stream her latest release, ‘Wild Nights with Emily,’ on Hulu and Kanopy.

Read our exclusive interview with the writer/director below.

I got the DVD of 'Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same' because I had been wanting to watch it for so long but couldn't find it anywhere. It was literally a hidden gem. How would you describe this movie to someone who hasn't seen it yet?

It's an underground queer comedy. I would say that you get to see the old New York in it too. There are so many queer movies that are sort of all commercialized, but this isn't one of them. Variety called it a 'family film,' which was funny. It's not a typical film. It's not a cookie-cutter romantic comedy.

For me, this movie perfectly captured not only a universal feeling of alienation – literally – but more specifically, the New York lesbian experience. Like, I loved when they went to Cubby Hole because that's still such an iconic space for queer women in the city. Would you say that you've seen lesbian culture in New York change much within the decade since the movie's release?

I don't know that the culture has changed – I think that the world has changed. It was heavily centered around bars in the past, I think because there were so few places where gay people or women felt comfortable. It still blows me away when I see young people walking down the street holding hands. When I came of age, women couldn't do that without being harassed non-stop. So it's changed, and to some extent in a good way. But coming of age and coming out as queer, you always go through something because you're still the same person but all of the sudden everyone is treating you differently. There's something that can feel very alienating about it. I didn't know if you had been at the screening in Williamsburg that we had on Valentine's Day at the Nighthawk Cinema. Every seat in the theater was taken. It has a timeless quality with references to 1950s sci-fi and certain iconic images of aliens and iconic images of lesbians. So it's still as relatable as it was.

It's funny you mentioned that screening because the movie seems to have gained almost a cult classic status within certain corners of the world. But I feel like my generation is so caught up in streaming and watching what's available, so have you seen a newer audience being drawn to this film?

Everyone in the audience had never seen it! There's something about seeing comedies in public that's fun. 'Cause one of the opportunities that queer people were denied growing up is just walking into a theater with an audience and having the story on screen relate to you in some way. You know, you can watch things in your bedroom, streaming on your laptop as much as you want, but there's something so fun about a group of people coming together for a screening. But it's true, it is officially viewed as an underground classic.

Comedies change you… I think for women especially, it's important to watch comedies so you can laugh at the world – because you really need to.

One thing I love about this movie is you can really tell it's made for lesbians. I feel like some of the references were so niche that I didn't even realize it was a thing until I watched it and I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ How did you come up with the story and how much of the script was based on real-life?

The feeling was a real-life feeling that I had. With the premise of the movie being that these aliens live on a planet where it's believed that if you love too much, the feelings leave your body and rise into the sky and widen the hole in the ozone – it was a realization I had at one point when I was totally crushed-out on this woman. I had this realization like, 'Wow, these feelings are so powerful it doesn't even feel like I'm having them. They just feel like they're hanging in the air – like they're in the environment. These are my feelings, but they feel like part of the weather.'

I often make comedies where there are ridiculous circumstances, but I try to write truthfully under those circumstances – that's what makes you feel like the story has stakes. So I drew on feelings that I had – that kind of yearning you often go through, how raw it often feels to be out and how alienated you feel. The other thing I would say is true to life is because we shot in the East Village, we could have people walking around the streets in full alien costumes with bald heads and pointy collars and no one take a second look. It sort of supported the premise, like, aliens could land in New York City and jaded New Yorkers wouldn't look twice. It made it more real.

Another thing that I really appreciate about the movie is its happy ending, which I feel is so rare to find specifically in lesbian movies nowadays.

Yes! It won a special award at Outfest, and they mentioned that she finds love even if she has to go to another planet to find it. Having a happy ending was very important for me because it's true – someone was telling me how when she came out, people were telling her to watch different movies and each one had an unhappy ending. And she was like, 'Is this what I have to look forward to?' It is really important, those happy, but believable, happy endings. I've seen movies that had happy endings, but because I don't believe them, it doesn't feel happy. Even though the writers or directors decided it's happy, you know deep down it's not because these two people aren't really gonna be able to make it work. But the movie is two oddballs who you know are right for each other – because that character of Jane is the only person you could imagine going out with someone who was really an alien, but she would never judge them. It was believable that she would be in that romance and find happiness in it too.

Right. Do you have a favorite film ending of all time?

It's funny that you ask that because I've often said I love the first two-thirds of every David Lynch movie, and it's really the last third where he's just jumped the shark and can't get back down from these things he set up. But the first two-thirds are so wonderful and exciting. For example, I loved 'Mulholland Drive' until the tiny old people shrunk to the size of ants and ran under the door of the woman's bedroom. I do consider that though one of my favorite lesbian films. But with a happy ending – Oh I know! Here's the greatest happy ending of all time: 'Nights of Cabiria.' It's Fellini and it's from I believe the 1950s. I don't wanna tell you what happens, but when you see it you'll see what I mean about a happy ending that's truthful and how satisfying that is. But I wanna answer this, let me think of just an over-the-top happy ending.

For me, it's not really over-the-top, but the ending of 'Carol.'

Oh yeah! That's a great ending. It was so funny – I remember opening weekend of 'Carol' in New York. After I saw the movie, everyone came out with – they looked like they had just been huffing something in a paper bag. Like, everyone was so dreamily happy. I wanted to stand there and take pictures of people and make a webpage like, ‘Audience Members Coming Out of 'Carol.'' 'Cause everyone just looked like whatever they had ingested had just hit them. They were so happy. It was a happy ending. I can't even remember exactly what happened, but I remember what everyone looked like.

You might not have realized this, but the ending of ‘Space Aliens’ was in color. I thought of it as a reverse 'Wizard of Oz.' One thing the lesbian playwright, Holly Hughes, said was ridiculous about ‘Wizard of Oz' is that Dorothy spends the whole movie trying to get back to the black and white world instead of staying in Oz where it's so fabulous. I never heard anyone put it so succinctly. But I'm gonna think of some more movies. I thought ‘D.E.B.S.’ by Angela Robinson had a very happy ending.

Yes! It's iconic.

It's true though. Part of the reason is there can often be more money and more support for something that's seemingly about social injustice. Once you have happiness or comedy in something, it's not taken as seriously. Like, a movie where someone's murdered, killed, et cetera, can draw more investors because it's like, 'We're part of this cause.' What's interesting with drama is like, just because something is presented with weight doesn't mean that it has weight. Comedies change you. Watching them changes you. It gives you hope, changes your neurological brain patterns. I think for women especially, it's important to watch comedies so you can laugh at the world – because you really need to.

Exactly. I like how you mentioned 'Mulholland Drive' because I can definitely sense some Lynchian vibes in ‘Space Aliens.’ Who or what else would you say has influenced your style?

Well, I'm totally flattered you would say there were 'Lynchian vibes' because I do think he is a true poet of cinema. I love Fellini and Italian neorealism. I also was inspired by the French New Wave and Agnes Varda. For example, if you look at 'Breathless,' there's scenes where they're walking down the street and supposedly had the camera in a postal bag – but you're in the middle of Paris! Like, this is not a tidy lockdown set. I always think it's sad when people do low-budget films and don't take advantage of what the form has to offer. You have a small footprint, you can really get out in the city and capture the life of it. That's what I did with 'Space Aliens' and my second feature, 'The Foxy Merkins' – which is about two women hustlers who pick up Republican and conservative women and turn tricks for them in this constructive world – and sleep in the bathroom of the Port Authority bus station. I also take a lot of inspiration from theatre because my background is in theatre – the idea of making things performance-centered. Those are more my inspirations than other filmmakers, per se. Although I'm also really inspired by documentaries and documentary filmmakers. How long they take to get it right and how well they research things and piece it together to make it have a shape and a flow – and there's real life in there! That's just so thrilling.

Now that it’s been 10 years since you’ve directed your first feature, is there anything you would say to yourself when you were just starting out?

I would say not to be so worried about things. I was also a producer on all my movies, and it was a lot of pressure to bear all that responsibility. I worried about a lot of things and I would rather that I just worry about things once they actually happen. There's something scary about it because you don't know if you're gonna be able to get to the end, but we made it to the end with every movie. So I guess I would say, 'Enjoy things along the way more.'

Culture

The Club Is Coming to the Stage

We enter and make our way to what is approximately front left of the DJ booth, where we’re accustomed to dancing at clubs in New York. “So is this a techno club or a dance performance?” yells an uncertain participant in my boyfriend’s ear. He laughs, bouncing along to Ben UFO, and yells back, “It’s both!” The club has long been a hot topic in European contemporary dance but it is only now making its way into New York performance venues, largely through transatlantic tours. R.O.S.E. follows recent examples like Michele Rizzo’s HIGHER xtn. at MoMA PS1 (May 2024), (LA)HORDE’s Room with a View at NYU Skirball (October 2023), and Gisèle Vienne’s Crowd at BAM (October 2022).

Do these performances compromise the club’s spirit — a space idealized for its anonymity, dark lighting, and thundering music? The notion of the club as a utopian escape is admittedly just that — an ideal — because of how its intense conditions can create barriers to entry. Still, the club remains sacred for many, a place to forge connections and embrace an alternative state of being. Looking at how performances transfer this spirit to new settings reveals what aspects of the club are essential and those that aren’t.

Sharon Eyal, R.O.S.E. 2024. Photography by Stephanie Berger, courtesy of Park Avenue Armory.

Eyal’s dancers make their entrance. The lighting shifts from roving blue to yellow spotlights as Ben UFO’s tracks transition to more melodic beats. Clad in deconstructed lace Dior lingerie with dark red tears painted on their faces, the dancers move cautiously in a tightly maintained pack, slicing paths through the horde with hoof-like steps and jerky leg extensions. After around ten minutes of this controlled choreography, the dancers vanish as the lighting shifts back to blue and Ben UFO picks up his dubby beats. The club, as we knew it, resumes. This cycle of tightly executed movements and free-flowing club-goers repeats several times, each time emboldening the dancers to plunge further into the crowd.

Clubbing in a building once built for the U.S. Army National Guard on Manhattan’s Upper East Side turns out to be surprisingly successful — at least for the audience. What starts as an awkward, scattered group searching for their non existent seats gradually gels into an engaged, bouncing crowd that erupts in cheers each time the dancers enter and exit. Performance patrons who might never step foot in a club find themselves swept up in its potential for communion, moving in unison with fellow ticket holders. But it isn’t until the very end of R.O.S.E. that the dancers finally break free from Eyal’s choreography and join the fired-up audience in a brief moment of improvisatory movement with the music. By keeping her dancers at arm’s length, Eyal seems more interested in the club as a backdrop for her signature movement style than wholly as a space with meaningful stories to be told.

Michele Rizzo, HIGHER xtn. 2024. Photography by Cameron Kelly courtesy of MoMA PS1.

Back in May, I attended Wire Festival, a multiday electronic music event at Knockdown Center that had no shortage of organically united dancefloors. It attracted a crowd of seasoned ravers who were eager to celebrate the start of spring as they danced alongside DJs who played well into the daylight. I left Wire in an afternoon daze to see Michele Rizzo’s HIGHER xtn. at MoMA PS1. My sleepless euphoria only deepened as the performance unfolded, starting with a lone dancer who looked plucked out of the festival.

The dancer, dressed in sneakers, baggy jeans, and a tight tank top, shuffled slowly into the gallery, perfectly in sync with the looping bars of an understated electronic melody. Soon, other dancers, clad in the same staple rave uniform, joined him — each having traveled from Europe for the U.S. museum debut of HIGHER xtn., which premiered at the Stedelijk in Amsterdam in 2018 and quickly became a fixture at kunsthalles and festivals across the continent. As the score’s tempo climbed, the choreography locked into a 16-count sequence, which the dancers executed with precise synchrony. They remained intensely focused, never making eye contact with each other, as they sought release in the endless repetition of synthesized beats. Once the dancers reached their limit, they stopped the sequence and exited the gallery, one by one.

HIGHER xtn. used the focused daylight of the gallery to highlight the meditative release found in the repetitive movements that dominate dark dancefloors. The performance’s restraint brought more consistency and intentionality than Eyal’s all-encompassing club construction in R.O.S.E. Yet both performances offer enticing entry points into club culture for those who may not frequent raves. Rizzo’s ecstatic, hypnotic repetitions reveal how the club can mirror other meditative practices, while Eyal’s interpolation of performance and clubbing helped hesitant audience members blossom by the end. Still, both works overlook one of the most underappreciated aspects of clubbing — its potential for individual expression. HIGHER xtn.’s pristine uniformity especially risks promoting the outdated techno trope that there’s a “right” way to dance to electronic music.

Maybe this shortcoming is, in fact, a benefit. For habitual ravers jaded by one too many sunrise sets, it’s a reminder to return to the club with more intention. If you pause and peer through the darkness, you’ll see hundreds of people moving to the same beat, each with their own subtle variations. This collective choreography is a ready-made spectacle that doesn’t need validation in a theater or museum. And when the music shifts slightly, you can watch the ripple effect sweep through the crowd while feeling the new beat in your body. Maybe this small bit of magic is best left on the dance floor.

Culture

Real Slick, Jack: Psyche Organic Arrives in New York

Shop Psyche Organic at Happier Grocery and Dimes. Coming soon to @citarellagourmetmarket @unionmarket @gourmetgarage @deciccos @fairwaymarket plus many more.

Culture

Porsche SCOPES Brings Art, Music, and Design to Toronto

The festival was a full immersion into Toronto’s dynamic creative energy. Day one set the tone with DJ collective Living Room, followed by an experimental performance by Claire Rousay that captivated the crowd. Jewelry designer Steff Eleoff unveiled her Porsche Taycan 4S art car installation—a bold fusion of automotive and wearable art inspired by her Sedona ring—while OVO Sound’s Naomi Sharon and DVSN wrapped up the night with powerful, genre-defying performances.

We witnessed SCOPES Toronto bridging underground and mainstream with day two’s lineup. DJ Korea Town Acid’s set paved the way for Angelphroot and Dameer’s debut of BASSMATI, a track blending South Asian influences with bass-driven sounds. Chippy Nonstop’s return to Toronto and Richie Hawtin’s extended set were milestones of the evening, proving that the city’s underground scene has a global resonance.

The final day featured standout performances from local pianist Harrison, Indigenous artist Tia Wood, and hip-hop visionary Sean Leon, who elevated his set with a live choir. Moonshine Collective’s film and musical performance explored themes of African utopia, showcasing art’s power to bridge culture and technology. Rising Toronto star SadBoi, who paused her tour to perform at SCOPES, further underscored the festival’s commitment to nurturing local talent.

Throughout the weekend, we experienced installations from artists like Mitsu Mitsu and culinary creations from Bar Mordecai, capturing the multifaceted creativity Porsche SCOPES brought to Toronto. This milestone 10th edition, open to all, allowed Toronto’s vibrant arts scene to thrive, underscoring SCOPES’ mission to celebrate local talent while connecting it to a global audience.

office had the chance to connect with rising star SadBoi ahead of the event. In our conversation, she shared insights into her creative journey and reflected on what performing and growing up in Toronto means to her and her work.

How are you, and where are you at right now? You told me you were traveling.

Um, I’m good, I’m feeling really good right now. I’m traveling back to Salt Lake City. I had a show yesterday in Seattle. I’m on tour right now with Coco and Claire.

How is touring life treating you? Do you like it?

I love being on the road. To be honest, I feel like I don’t know—like I’ve had good experiences and bad ones—but this time it’s really fun, especially with the people I’m surrounded by. It’s also the longest tour I’ve been on; I have about four more weeks to go. I’m trying not to think about how many days I have left.

Do you feel homesick?

Yes, because when I start thinking about how many days are left, I start to miss my dogs. I’ve just been trying to stay in the moment—I don’t even know what day of the week it is, to be honest with you.

Oh, sweet! What are your dogs’ names?

Jillian and Winston. I know, they’re crazy names.

You’ll be performing at SCOPES in Toronto, which is where you grew up. Do you feel like the crowd is different when you perform in Toronto compared to other cities?

Yes, I mean, Toronto just feels different because it’s home. Every time I come back to perform, something in my career has changed. The last time I performed in Toronto, people just wanted to have a good time, and I’m excited to perform back home again to see everyone’s reactions. I know it’s going to be different from the last time. It’s exciting to see your own growth. Toronto is a tough crowd, though. If we’re with you, we’re really with you.

So, they’re super picky? You have to gain their respect, or what is it?

I think Toronto people are in their own world, but when something really connects with them, they’ll lose themselves in the moment. But it takes something to bring them out of that. Toronto crowds are tough because even if they like you, they won’t show it outright until they’re really vibing with you.

It’s like a vibe check, right?

Exactly. They’ll enjoy your performance, but it’s hard to explain. When people visit Toronto, they often say, “Oh, you guys are so nice,” and I’m like, “I don’t think we’re that nice, we’re just polite.” Like, you can walk down the street, and no one will say anything, but it’s just our mannerisms.

You mentioned Toronto can have a moody energy, especially at night, and that the underground night scene there really inspires you. Can you talk more about what makes Toronto's nightlife so influential for you?

Absolutely, Toronto has this unique energy that comes alive at night. Similar to New York, there are the popular clubs everyone knows, but you need to find your niche—the people who know where the real parties are. I remember going to raves in high school yards, sneaking in because I wasn’t old enough. Events like Baby, Jerk!, and Yes Yes Y’all were pivotal, exposing me to DJs blending dancehall with EDM—something I hadn’t seen before. Toronto nightlife is moody and intense, but when everyone’s out, it’s like the whole city is alive.