It all rambles along in its likably eccentric way and it is only in the last third that the film gains any approximation of a plot. It makes no real pretense to message or insight – at most its seems to be setting up vacant-headed Cindy Williams against conman Harry Dean Stanton and cynical Fred Ward, who lectures about his God-given right to believe in nothing, to deliver the rather dubious message that at least believing in something, no matter how far out, is better than believing in nothing. The rather abrupt fantastic ending seems a shrug designed to say “Who knows, sometimes an out-of-it belief might be right?”

More than anything it is the characters that Uforia is worth watching for. Fred Ward is very good as the cynical drifter who eventually becomes drawn into getting behind Cindy Williams’s beliefs – one scene also shows him as a rather good Country-and-Western performer. Cindy Williams’s strung-out vacant role has considerable charm. Particularly good is Harry Dean Stanton who does a spot-on imitation of the fired-up zeal and vocal intonation of a revivalist preacher. The character’s combination of loose friendliness, flinty wisdom and ruthlessness is quite fascinating.