Wavelength (1983)

“We can't run around with three naked kids, not even in Hollywood.” This film is grimy, matter-of-fact, and wonderfully/terribly unsentimental. That's a strength when the it's about US military psychos experimenting on aliens or murdering civilians, or said civilians and aliens doing midnight shit on the run in Los Angeles, but a weakness when the charmless main characters are left to their own devices. In better hands, the first hour could've been condensed to set the scene and backdrop the film with bitter anti-government commentary, and the rest of the film would've been the eerie escapades of alien tourists and their telepathised terrestrial guides… or the last half-hour would've been almost eliminated to focus on the scumbag Air Force conspiracy. As it is, it just feels unfocused, yet not realist or surrealist enough in style to justify it.