fritz westenberger

I've never seen a film that so perfectly demonstrates that you don't need a big budget to execute an engrossing sci-fi narrative. A story we've seen 100 times - a UFO abducting people in small town America - is made fresh by finessing the earthly details of human interaction and shared wonder that are typically secondary to the supernatural elements. It that sense it calls to mind Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but it is far less belabored in every element of its filmmaking, from the way we are made to chase the leads around at the opening (instead of having big stars acting big in our faces), to the handling of the rapid-fire period dialogue, sublimely restrained score and sound effects and camerawork that is bravado without taking us out of the film to show off. It's one smart, tasteful scifi film, and even finishes bravely, by not giving us a happy ending.