UFOria (1981)

Very well executed

disgusting, overrated, pointless

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Sheldon Bart (Fred Ward) is a con-man drifter. Cashier Arlene Stewart (Cindy Williams) looks the other way when he shoplifts grocery. He reconnects with his traveling preacher friend Bud Sanders (Harry Dean Stanton) and performs in a fake healing. The homeless Sheldon starts sleeping and living with Arlene. He dismisses her obsession with UFOs as craziness at first. She dreams of a spaceship landing and gains a following with fellow UFO enthusiasts. Sheldon and Bud use their preaching skills for their own gains.This is built like an indie with a bunch of quirky characters. It's an odd little movie with some usual characters played by veteran actors. Cindy Williams never got to be a big movie star. She does these weird little comedies. This low budget story does meander a little. This has an unique appeal from filmmaker John Binder although his humor doesn't always hit its mark.

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.

I haven't seen this gem in years, which is my loss. I came to IMDB hoping to see that it was out on DVD. Alas, no. The characters are funny and quirky (not Hollywood phony-quirky) and the story unfolds organically. Having grown up in the 1960s, there were moments that made me laugh out loud in recognition.Two in particular: Toby (Darrell Larson) a wide-eyed hippie-innocent and his wife are cuddling their newborn son. Toby asks her "Do you think JesusKrishnaBuddha is too heavy a name for him?" Later, when supermarket checker Cindy Williams asks him if he believes in flying saucers. He replies, with a beatific smile, "I believe in everything." It's a great companion line to the hippie in Louis Malle's "Atlantic City," who is cautioned to buckle her seatbelt on the airplane and replies sincerely, "Oh, I don't believe in gravity."