It can be a real challenge to write a short description of a film for a catalog or a review. A case in point would be the description of Half-Life that appears in the SIFF catalog and led at least one audience member at the Q&A session that followed Friday night’s screening to mention that he expected the film to be about global warming. Global warming does play a recurring role in the film but it’s more as a background metaphor for the strangeness and tension that surrounds the family drama at the heart of the film.

Writer/director Jennifer Phang’s debut feature centers on a family living in Northern California suburbia. Eighteen-year-old Pam Wu spends her nights as a janitor at a small airfield and her days hanging out with her best friend Scott, the adopted son of an evangelical Christian couple who pointedly make a point of ignoring as much as they can the Scott’s homosexuality, no matter how blatantly he makes them aware of it. Scott’s first real lover just happens to be someone with a close relationship to Pam’s kid brother Timothy. Pam and Tim are very close, bonded not just by their family ties but the stress that life has placed on them. Their father, a pilot, one day got in his airplane and flew away never to be seen again. Their perpetually stressed-out mother, Saura, seems to resent both of her children and spends most of her energy on her younger, live-in lover Wendell, a man whose presence is definitely disruptive and quite possibly dangerous for both the kids.

These complicated interconnections make for an engrossing drama on their own but Phang ups the stakes by introducing a science fiction element to the story that starts off subtle and slow but gains momentum over time, leading up to a stunning conclusion that permanently changes the lives of the Wu family. Extensive use of animation and excellent cinematographic use of the scenery both natural and manmade make Half-Life as visually engaging as it is emotionally appealing.

Half Life is still seeking distribution; it will next be shown at the Los Angeles Film Festival. For more information on the film, visit its website.[Half-Life]