Written and directed by Darcy Weir, recounting the rise of Jaime Maussan as a journalist covering some of the most controversial UFO events seen across Mexico in history.

For a film that has UFO Files in the title, it’s best to be aware diving into the film that most of its 45-minutes are dedicated to exploring Maussan’s career, particularly the entirety of its first 15-minutes. It does of course talk about UFO sightings and mysterious happenings caught on camera but it feels as though they take a back seat to praising Maussan.

While exploring Maussan’s career is not uninteresting, it’s presented to feel like a collection of anecdotes and achievements that don’t have a particular direction or flow. The way that these facts are introduced feel as though they could have been put together in a much speedier and effective manner to get to the crux of the issue faster. Especially with having the man himself involved in this telling of his career, it unfortunately comes across as self-serving or bragging rather than background information to add context to the rest that it has to offer. The UFO clips and interviews are fairly limited as there are only a few separate examples used throughout and they’re not explored deeply enough to feel like they’re opening a discussion. It feels as though the clips are simply being provided as proof of extra-terrestrial life without any larger explanation or debate and this list of facts isn’t enough to stand on its own merit.

There are a few different issues that the film struggles with throughout its runtime, most noticeably is its tendency to be repetitive. The style itself has a similar issue but it’s more so about the problem of actually repeating facts or anecdotes three or more times, which within a very short feature feels like unnecessary padding which could have been used for different content. The editing between clips is also problematic, there aren’t smooth transitions from moment to moment, it continues to create the issue of lacking a larger aim or direction. A much more insignificant issue is the use of subtitles that don’t quite sync up with what’s being said and are an odd choice of font or colour. The choice of footage from Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show is also now a rather unfortunate inclusion.

Beyond the Spectrum – Maussan’s UFO Files feels like it should have been simply a documentary about the life of Maussan, it spends much more time discussing his career and achievements than it does anything alien. There’s too much repetition to create something genuinely captivating and it lacks a larger goal of what it’s trying to do, although the information it does have may be more compelling to those with an existing interest in the subject. A lot of the content is decades old, despite only being made within the last few years and it sadly doesn’t add anything new to the conversation or open itself up to a larger discussion.

Verdict: ✯✯

Available on Amazon Prime Video now