GertrudeStern

Science and faith are diametrically opposed, right? Empiricism wouldn't be the system of checks and balances that it is without peer reviewers dismissing /belief/, to separate stark fact from shades of fact at very least.

Contact introduces Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) as she unfolds a potentially groundbreaking discovery -- there could be other intelligent life in the universe. Through a series of contact ranging from Morse Code to advanced instructions for how to build a spacecraft designed to reach the unthinkably distant system Vega, Arroway, a calculating scientist, misses her chance at exploration the first time around when she reveals her agnosticism to a panel deciding who will man the one-man craft destined for Vega.

When the first iteration of the spacecraft malfunctions, wiping out a woman-slighting, opportunistic loser, a private investor gives Ellie her shot at the trip. In Vega, Ellie encounters a simulation of her father, who explains the gradual process of contact for galaxies across the universe.

When she returns, her whole trip is thrown into question, as it appeared that she had not even left the launch deck. Arroway is tasked with giving a moving speech to bolster faith behind something that she has no proof of and cannot explain.

Contact rocks. As Carl Sagan reminded and still reminds sizable populations of stoners and armchair astronomers, faith and awe are two separate things.

Zoom out. I'm 13 years old. The exact year The Italian Job hits screens. A big, early summer slammer! Here I am. I love the "That Don't Impress Me Much" music video that my older babysitting-cousin who has just returned after stealing away to Texas for an abortion is obsessed with.

I start seeing trailers for The Italian Job. HooBoy! I had never seen a Mini! These babies are all over the screen! Skidding around! Don't be fooled. There are some important heist-like situations in the movie...the crew even BLOWS UP a roadway in order to completely vanish a semi-truck containing a safe that Charlize Theron attempts to crack only after...Seth...Green...identifies the correct truck (in a lineup of 3) by remotely viewing their tire gauges (the one with the safe is heavier!).

I mean, it's a revenge plot. But just try to take your eyes off those Minis!

If what you need right now is a heartwarming Jack Nicholson flick, then As Good As It Gets is exactly what it says (barring the last detail + romance).

I actually came to AGAIG on the suggestion of a client who struggles with OCD, and who described her feeling of joy, when, in 1997, a film finally depicted someone with OCD up-close and personal. This is hilarious, because Jack's character at the outset is probably one of the last people someone would want as a poster child for their cause.

As someone who just got a new apartment, AGAIG reminded me that even if I get into occasional squabbles with my new neighbors, things could be worse. They're not hardened, bigoted authors who are throwing my dog into garbage chutes. I don't have to coax them out of their own misery in order to make them aware of the existence of my emotions.

Really, very fun to watch. Helen Hunt plays an unbelievably sticktuitive single mother and love interest, and Jack Nicholson obviously thrives with a compulsive disorder appended to him. Watch it with your mom.