UFOria - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Quirky Small Town, USA is a tough one to get right for the movies. There’s a delicate balancing act required. The characters, the people who make it quirky, all have to shine. They all need a moment where they shine as brightly as a star, but they have to make sense together, like a brilliant night sky. Here, in UFOria, writer/director John Binder understands that these stars are essential for a story that combines God, extraterrestrial aliens, and good old-fashioned Americana into one. In that night sky, with the stars shining brightly on their own, and interwoven as a complementary blanket, anything is possible.

The first bright, shining star we meet is Sheldon Bart (Fred Ward), a drunken Waylon Jennings wannabe. He doesn’t believe in much, other than living in the moment. But when he finds something to believe in, he believes in it with ferocity. Why, with that passion, he could be a preacher, if that job wasn’t already taken by “Brother” Bud Sanders (Harry Dean Stanton), a flimflam man who hawks the word of god, along with stolen cars. He might not believe in his own brand of bull, but as one of his employees says, a light can shine through any window. And then there’s Arlene (Cindy Williams), a grocery store cashier who believes that a UFO is coming, and it’s destined toward her, because of dreams and visions she’s having.

It doesn’t take long for Sheldon and Brother to hitch their stars to her wagon. There’s money to be made, after all. Where there’s a media frenzy, there’s people. And where there are people, there are gullible folks who are more than willing to part ways with their hard-earned money. Everyone is willing to jump through their necessary mental hoops to fit this prophetic flying saucer into their own preexisting beliefs. One of Brother’s followers shrugs and accepts it, saying that there are flying saucers in the Bible, after all. Arlene sees it as Noah’s Ark, and she’s Noah.

It would be easy to let UFOria be a cynical movie about stupid people, hicks who just don’t know any better. John Binder’s script isn’t interested in that. Instead, we observe a group of people, some of whom have very little in common other than that they all live in the same small town, and how they engage with this event. What do they believe? How do their beliefs shape them?

UFOria a sweet, charming film that has remained criminally underseen since it was first released, in a limited theatrical run. On home video, it suffered a similar fate, only available in VHS for decades. For the first time on disc, viewers have a chance to reconnect with this oddball cult classic that feels like a fever-dream hybrid of Northern Exposure, Twin Peaks, and The X-Files. This is a movie that truly understands that rural American experience, in all its quirks and eccentricities.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
UFOria makes contact with physical media, the first time ever on disc, on both 4K UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray. Both discs are housed in a standard case, with a removable slipcover, containing identical artwork, which appears to be newly commissioned for this release.

There are moments in UFOria that are awesome in their beauty. We see establishing shots of the desert, bathed in golden morning light. For this release, UFOria was scanned in 4K from its original camera negative and graded in Dolby Vision HDR. Those moments of awesome beauty are staggering, the color grading taking on such a naturalistic hue that it looks like a window to another world. The rest of the film isn’t quite as staggering, but it does look damn decent, lensed by cinematographer David Myers (THX 1138). Colors pop brilliantly, bordering on cartoony on primaries like reds, without risking oversaturation. The presentation itself is sharply detailed, with a wonderful layer of film grain throughout. Some Kino Lorber titles are guilty of looking a bit overcooked in their HDR implementation, but the team here used a light hand, and the result is impeccable. This is top-tier stuff. 

UFOria comes equipped with a lovely, uncomplicated DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo mix. There isn’t a lot to the overall design, other than people talking, and the occasional country hit needle-drop that rocks the front-only soundstage, but it doesn’t need to be anything more than that. Details, from each extreme end of the spectrum, from quiet to loud, to mid-range and everything else in between, is leveled with precision and crystal clear in realization.

If there’s one gripe I have about this release, it’s that it only comes with one supplement—an audio commentary track recorded for this release, available on both versions of the film, on each disc. Is it a bummer? Sure, yeah. Still, better’n nothin’. And it’s a good’n, too.

• Audio Commentary - Writer/Director John Binder, Associate Producer Jeanne Field, moderated by filmmaker Daniel Kremer

UFOria is a terrific flick. It’s quirky as all get-out, but from a writer/director who understands that the secret ingredient to quirkiness is in how the cast all comes together. Without that, you’re left with an insufferable mess, divorced from reality, with nothing to say. No. UFOria has plenty to say about small towns, America, religion and the unwavering faith that is required to believe that Christ Almighty left this planet in a flying saucer. The movie is funny, but not at the expense of our characters, it never punches down on them. We laugh with them, as we navigate unprecedented times. Kino Lorber’s release is lovingly restored, with excellent A/V stats and a great audio commentary track. UFOria is Highly Recommended.