Movie Reviews

On Friday I went to Blockbuster with a friend to rent a movie. We ended up getting What the Bleep? Down the Rabbit Hole, a movie that purported to be about quantum physics, and An Inconvenient Truth, a movie about global warming. As you can tell, we are complete nerds. In any case, I decided to review these fine (or not so fine) movies because I know how much you enjoy reading reviews of nerdy movies.

Down the Rabbit Hole: This movie starts with a semi-decent explanation of quantum physics as related by interviews with physicists and an animated superhero professor. Inexplicably, these clips are interwoven with a storyline that follows the life of a tense high-strung deaf photographer on psychotropic meds (she has hallucinations and body dismorphic disorder) and her free spirit artist roommate.

The best part of the film is a good (although incomplete) animated description of the slit experiment. In this experiment, electrons fired individually through a screen with two open slits form an interference pattern on a detector in the opposite wall. The results of this experiment show that a single electron is able to interfere with itself, suggesting the unusual conclusion that the same electron somehow went through both slits. (see wikipedia for a better description of this experiment) When you try to observe which slit the electron passes through, it goes through only one and there is no interference pattern. The film takes this as evidence that consciousness in the form of the observer changes reality. (The change actually happens because the detector must block whichever slit you are observing, thereby negating the possibility of interference).

From this high point the film goes rapidly downhill as it describes “experiments” in which participants change the output of a random number generator by concentration or “intentionality” and water droplets freeze into more beautiful snowflakes when people think happy thoughts on their behalf. New Agey pseudoscientists talk about how we can change the world with our minds through right thinking. While it is true that we can change our reality by altering our thinking (this forms the basis for cognitive-behavioral therapy) the mechanism whereby it occurs is explained by sociology and human nature, not some kind of mystic channeling of energy.

Finally, we are treated to the wisdom of Ramtha, a mystic guru woman in her late fifties. Despite being kind of scary looking, Ramtha gains some cool points in my book by smoking a Sherlock Holmes-style pipe. All in all, the movie was a piece of heretical garbage, but it did prompt a good discussion on theology and attempts to create our own grand unified theory of physics

An Inconvenient Truth: This is basically a film of Al Gore giving a powerpoint presentation. If that doesn’t sound like an exciting premise for a movie, I don’t know what does! However, I must say that I enjoyed the movie and highly recommend seeing it if you haven’t already.

It's easy to be skeptical about global warming because climate change is not something we can easily perceive. Before seeing the movie I was kind of on the fence about global warming. My thought was: “well, yeah it’s probably happening- that seems to be the general consensus of smart people, but it’s probably not that big of a deal. I mean, the earth heats up, the earth cools down, it’s happened before and the earth is still here, right?” After seeing the movie, however, I felt a strange urge to hug a tree. (OK, not quite)

The film did present very compelling data that, yes, CO2 levels and temperatures are rising, and, yes, human beings are responsible for this rise. The film manages to present this message in a pretty balanced way. It does not rely too heavily on emotional appeals or bashing big business, but places responsibility for our future squarely on ourselves. It ends with a hopeful message and practical tips on how we can change our behavior. I’m in the process of switching out my lights to compact fluorescent bulbs and I dialed my thermostat back to 67 degrees. (Also see this article on Walmart pushing CFLs).

Wow, this was longer than I intended. Thanks for reading this far. Next time I'll address Ryan & Sarah's blog tag or maybe Arnold's universal healthcare!