Starting 8/8/14 at the Loft Theater, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. in Tucson, AZ
Showtimes for opening day: 11:30 a.m., 2 , 4:30, 7 and 10:45 p.m.
I Origins, the second feature film from award-winning writer/director Mike Cahill (Another Earth), tells the story of Ian Gray (Michael Pitt, Last Days), a PhD student studying molecular biology with a specialty in the evolution of the eye. One night, Ian leaves his lab to go to a party and has an intense, but fleeting, encounter with a mysterious masked model (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, The Well-Digger’s Daughter) who escapes into the night. With only a picture of her stunning eyes, he tracks her down, and they fall in love. Their fundamentally different beliefs about life only serve to intensify their connection, and they vow to spend forever together. Years later, Ian and his lab partner, Karen (Brit Marling, The East), make a stunning discovery with profound existential implications, leading him to risk his life’s work and his family to travel across the world to find the truth behind what he has found and what it may mean. Deftly combining contemporary technologies and metaphysics, the enthralling I Origins is a science fiction of the now, boldly speculating on the connective tissue between love and science, the possible unintended discoveries of big data and more, challenging us to examine who we are, how we know and why we love. (Dir. by Tim Cahill, 2014, USA, 113 mins., Rated R, Fox Searchlight) Digital
Finally saw this unusual sci fi movie, which confronts the viewer with the opposition between science/evolution and religion/faith/God (creationism). The scientist in the movie is trying to make blind organisms “see” through scientific experiments, yet later seeks a girl with the same eye pattern as his first deceased wife. The journey leads him to India, of all places, where Lord Buddha was born and lived, whose religion believes in reincarnation (according to the Dalai Llama’s history). The movie plays till Thursday at the Loft Theater. It’s a refreshing, disturbing movie, yet hopeful as well.