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FROM OTHER WORLDS
Written & Directed by Barry Strugatz.
Produced by Linda Moran, Rene Bastian & Diana E. Williams.
Cinematography by Mo Flam.
Edited by: Joel Hirsch.
Music by Pierre Foldes.
Released by: Belladonna.
Country of Origin: USA. 88 min. Not Rated.
Starring: Cara Buono, Isaach De Bankolé, Melissa Leo, Joel de la Fuente, David Lansbury, Robert Peters, Paul Lazar, Peter Bartlett, Laurie Esterman & Robert Downey Sr.

In the press notes, writer/director Barry Strugatz wrote he thought it would be “funny for regular, everyday people to encounter UFO’s, aliens, and other worldly forces in their normal neighborhoods and lives.” Such a premise needs a very careful comic mind to balance out the absurd with the satire. But when a film genre is already so amusing, if mostly unintentionally, there really isn’t much to send-up, especially with a script as timid as the one here.

Brooklyn housewife Joanne Schwartzbaum (Cara Buono) and African immigrant Abraham (Isaach De Bankolé) meet at a UFO encounter support group and confide to each their mutual abduction experiences, revealing to the other a mark that has been permanently left on their bodies. They’re stalked by an alien (Joel de la Fuente), who commands them to save all humanity by preserving a coded ancient scroll.

There might be tiny bits of comedy here, but almost all such moments (save for a small dialog exchange between Joanne and her husband arguing about Superman) are made just way too obvious to work, even on the level of goofy ‘50s sci-fi movies that Strugatz more than obviously wants to spoof. And because of its budget being ultra-low, Strugatz doesn’t do much at all with any of the aliens. The blossoming romance between Joanne and Abraham becomes all the more contrived by how it’s stitched into the plot and then dropped at the end, and a potential confrontation between Joanne and her husband is passed over. Regarding the wacky humor, the only actor who believably goes over the top may be Paul Lazar as the leader of the UFO group (he had a great bit part in The Silence of the Lambs), but even he can only do so much with a facile script. Jack Gattanella
January 26, 2007