UFOria

Cindy Williams gives a superb, luminous, heart-warming performance as daffy, but endearing small mid-western town grocery check-out girl Arlene, whose constant, deep-seated belief that she'll soon be visited by alien beings from another planet brings together a motley collection of New Age religious kooks, shiftless no-hoper losers, snoopy media newshounds, and other such colorful societal oddballs which include longtime Western movie bit player Hank Worden as a senile World War II vet and fellow ubiquitous Western character thesp Harry Carey Jr. in one of his standard affable good ol' boy roles. Arlene's nutty notions also attract the attention of aimless grifter drifter Sheldon (a grungily engaging Fred Ward, who's rarely been better) and amoral, cynical, opportunistic phony roadside preacher Brother Bud (the inestimable Harry Dean Stanton doing a splendidly sour reprise of his avaricious fake blind priest part from "Wise Blood").

Capably directed and smartly written by John Binder (who co-wrote the equally off-beat "Endangered Species"), with smooth, sparkling cinematography by David Myers, a lovely, lulling honkytonk score by Richard Baskin, and a top-rate country and western soundtrack (several choice Waylon Jennings and John Prine tunes are prominently featured herein, while the always great Roger Miller exuberantly belts out the wonderfully wacky theme song), this beautifully quirky and amiable sleeper offers a delightful, astute, pleasingly eccentric seriocomic look at how one person can indeed have a substantial positive impact on other people, the profound need to live a happy life, and how the ability to believe in something -- hell, man, just anything -- gives life purpose and meaning, thus making it easier for one to persevere and prevail through that dull, unceasing, sometimes disheartening daily grind we all must contend with. Intelligent, affectionate, often funny, and ultimately quite moving, this simply lovely favorite rates a sunny, uplifting, totally terrific little beaut.

This is one of my favourite films. Unfortunately it didn't get a mainstream release here in Sydney. Instead it got released through an art-house theatre (The Valhalla). It could be classified as a country and western comedy with a dash of sci-fi I guess.

The opening scenes establish that the central character, Sheldon, (played by Fred Ward) is a man, who, for all his external bravado is in fact an unhappy, lonely, drifter who badly needs an escape to a better life. He meets his perfect match, Arlene, played appealingly by Cindy Williams. She sees through Sheldon's facade immediately. She catches him shoplifting in the Supermarket she works in and sees through him in an instant (Waylon Jennings wouldn't go in for shoplifting). Not that Arlene isn't lonely herself. Sheldon manages to seduce Arlene, intending to leave her afterwards. Despite his misgivings about her belief in flying saucers, he finds himself unable to move on.

As the other reviewers have said, the supporting cast is great as well. Harry Dean Stanton is great as the phony "Brother Bud", the hippy grocery packer, the "Colonel", etc etc.

An absolute gem.

As far as i can tell, the only two options for watching this movie is to either find a 30+ year old VHS copy, or watch the low quality VHS rip on YouTube. It feels like I have looked everywhere, but unfortunately thats the only two options i found. I even tried a long shot and messaged John Binder himself to hear if there really is no better way to watch this, but I guess he thought my message was spam (never heard from him).

So how is the movie? Better than expected, but definitely unusual and with plenty of cult potential. Its better than a B-movie and quite stylistic, but it is very sort of low key. The characters are original and well acted, and the country music sound track is something for itself. The comedy is quite subtle, and not of the ba-dum-tss kind of jokes where you know when and what the funny part is. It was sometimes hard to hear the dialog and see what was going on, and sometimes it did not feel like the progression in the story was very well explained, but that "old VHS tape uploaded to YouTube" thing did absolutely nothing good for the quality which most likely explains that. I dont think UFOria would ever have become a blockbuster, even if it had seen a better release, but it certainly deserves better than the dust bin. Should be a no-brainer to pull it out and release it on the numerous streaming services available now.

I would love to rewatch it if i ever come across it in DVD quality or better.

The title is no less silly than anything else in this disarming, oddball comedy, which sat on a shelf for half a decade because (most likely) its low budget charm is so at odds with Hollywood's megabuck mentality. No one will ever mistake it for a great film, but it's hard to resist a movie drawn around such eccentric characters, including charlatan preacher Harry Dean Stanton, lovable con artist and Waylon Jennings wannabe Fred Ward, and naïve supermarket cashier Cindy Williams, who only wants to warn people about the imminent return of Noah's extraterrestrial ark. Add the usual quota of Western small town dreamers and drifters and you have, literally in a nutshell, a modest and enjoyable diversion that (thankfully) doesn't take itself too seriously.

This amiable piece of Americana was unfortunately not given a decent release, and it took until 1986 for this film to get released in repertory cinemas and find its audience.

Cindy Williams (Arlene) is charming as ever as a born-again Christian grocery store clerk who believes salvation will be coming to earth in a flying saucer. Fred Ward is a drifter who takes up with her and while using her for his benefit, falls for her as well. Harry Dean Stanton as Brother Bud teams up with Ward to exploit the space theory and start tent revivals on the predicted landing sight, charging admission and gathering more donations. Now Brother Bud seems to have a side job that involves hauling hot cars, so that brings in the interest of the law as well. Poor Arlene, it seems everyone has taken this thing way out of proportion and fears they'll lose their true faith and mission. And how will it be resolved? Well, you know something special has to appear and save the day!

This is an amiable film, with plenty of likeable characters whether they are good and sweet or downright cons. Cindy Williams steals the show with her naive Arlene always reading the tabloids and committed to spreading the good news of Jesus' return from space. Sure, you learn a few things about the nature of man, right and wrong, and sticking to what you believe, but golly, it just leaves you so darn happy and smiling after it's all over. It will make you feel good about yourself too.

Uforia is still available on VHS and is a nifty title to have in a collection--it's a film you can show to friends and they will definitely be surprised and thank you for it. That's the experience I've had, and after all these years the film's story and cleverness holds up well.