Contact

I just watched Contact again, and now all of a sudden it's 4:00 a.m. Contact is one of those movies where if you start watching it at any point you just have to watch it the whole way through. Partly it's because Contact is an adventure story. Partly it's because the events, the way aliens choose to contact us, and how the world reacts all seem so plausible. A lot of it is that it basically has a humanistic message (we have to be here for each other regardless of the bullshit, etc.) Plus, the movie loves to keep its secrets (like once you decide Haris is in love with Eli, you get to look for it all the time.) But the most important is Jodie Foster.

I've been hanging out with some geeky people lately, and what I noticed this time around was just how geeky Jodie Foster played Eli, the woman scientist and hero of our story. This is a girl who can't get out of clashing colors and bad outfits for at least the first half-hour of the movie. She doesn't know how to talk to the press or the brass, she's routinely humiliated by her boss in public, her boyfriend is too attractive and important for her. It's the dorkiest character I've seen and been able to believe in quite some time. And just last year I was watching Jodie Foster own everybody in Inside Man.

Speaking of which, can you believe this movie was made nine years ago? I remember the first time I saw it because I was in Boston with these girls and I'm really not getting in to all this right now, but imagine everything I've done in the last nine years. If nothing else, I've watched the entire Carl Sagan Nova series, Cosmos. So I've got that under my belt.

There is always something going on when you look at Jodie Foster's face, especially her eyes. You could follow the whole movie just by watching those eyes, sound off, no effects, get McCaunaghay the fuck out of there. Being able to follow a story through one person's face means Star Quality. We've got our own stars, but there may be no Jodie Foster for this generation.