Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch.
The Cosmic: Contact
The 1990s heralded Jodie Foster as one of the greatest actresses of her generation. With two Academy Awards and a track record of movie hits, few actresses could boast her track record as box office gold, or her depth of dramatics.
For Ms. Foster at her best, and perhaps, her most underappreciated as well, please refer to director Robert Zemekis‘ 1997 sci-fi epic, Contact. Based on futurist Carl Sagan’s novel, the film tells the story of Ellie Araway (Foster), a plucky astronomer fascinated by the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Elle’s colleagues often chastise her for her obsession with meeting aliens; her research almost gets shut down more than once. Her work also infringes on her personal life, torpedoing a love affair with a handsome minister, Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey). Still, with the help of an eccentric billionaire (John Hurt), Ellie manages to expand a program to search deep space for signs of civilization. Then one day she detects a signal, and all Hell breaks loose on Earth.
More than that we’ll not reveal here, as Contact is the kind of movie that loves to pull the rug out from under its audience at every opportunity. Suffice it to say that, much like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or the more recent Arrival, the film treats first contact with extraterrestrial life with verisimilitude. Zemeckis, Foster, Sagan, et. al. all want to paint a portrait of what the world would really look like if it discovered alien life. How would that affect global commerce? International relations? Civil society? Religion? And what would it mean if one person has to speak for the whole of humanity?
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Unlike the other aforementioned films in this genre, Contact also loves a twist of the emotional life. Zemeckis, who crafted the epitome of emotionally manipulative cinema with Forrest Gump, doesn’t hold back here. Neither does Foster: Contact requires her to play some very difficult notes, and she nails each one. If Foster gave a performance for the ages in The Silence of the Lambs, her work in Contact ranks a close second in her filmography.
Contact features an extraordinary supporting cast, groundbreaking special effects (most of which hold up more than 20 years on), and an electrifying performance by Foster. Critics and audiences didn’t quite recognize its brilliance upon release. Foster received substantial Oscar buzz but no Best Actress nomination, and audiences used to the spectacle of Independence Day or awaiting the release of The Phantom Menace seemed perplexed by Contact‘s sincerity. Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review upon relase. 14 years later, he revised that review to name Contact as one of the Greatest Movies of All Time. Why? Maybe because in 1997 conspiracy theories, anti-science crusades and terrorist violence seemed like the stuff of fiction. By the 2010s, they had become realities of everyday life.
They still are. Contact is the kind of fearless, provocative, expertly-crafted film that terrifies present-day Hollywood. The film asks just as much of its audience as it does of its leading lady. Foster has to carry the film with a layered, complex performance. The audience has to wrestle with questions of equal depth.
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Doug
Other than the fact that Foster is gay in her personal life, there’s absolutely nothing “queer” about this film.
Kangol2
Foster gives a very good performance and is a lesbian (though she wasn’t out when this film was made), but this is hardly a queer film in any way, form or fashion, unless you’re analogizing alien contact and…well, just no. She is at her best, though, in The Silence of the Lambs, her masterpiece, and The Accused, as well as Foxes, Carnage, and Nell. She also was excellent as a child actress in Bugsy Malone and the astonishing Taxi Driver.
Dijonaise
You forgot “Paper Moon” for which she received her first Oscar at age 10.
Jack
Dijonaise, honey that was Tatum O’Neal who won an Oscar for Paper Moon.
Kangol2
Oh yes, Jack, Tatum O’Neal gave one of the great all-time performances as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon. She, her father Ryan O’Neal, Madeline Kahn, and P. J. Johnson give stellar performances in what is a perfect little Peter Bogdanovich film.
storm45701
You forgot “The Bad News Bears”…
BaltoSteve
One of my favorites was The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane.
UpperCasey
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING here. The film rightly got criticized for lots of stuff. McConnie’s cornball southern accent. Eech. The double whammy duplicate machine. Durp. The final “resolution” that just one human had just one interaction and now everyone can move on as IF. This film is a pile of crap. Just because some of the actors/directors/etc are queer does NOT make this a queer film. Or even a decent one for that matter. Forgettable schlock. Watch it if it is FREE. SERIOUSLY Querty. Do better!
claudio sgaravizzi
the only EECH here is your comment, that reveals a lot of what you know about cinema. And like most ignorant people, you are the first to jump on something you don’t understand and scream all your silly, nasty comments.
Frankly, you should read more about movies (and Roger Ebert) before writing such nonsense.
dinard38
@Claudio Just because someone doesn’t like the same movie you did doesn’t make them ignorant! UpperCasey wasn’t screaming any silly, nasty comment. That’s you doing that with the name calling because someone dared not like the same movie you did.
UpperCasey is right! That movie was straight up garbage. Love Jodie Foster, but hated this movie. Some of y’all act like we have to praise all works by a LGBTQ entertainer. Hell no! I can separate a person from their work. This particular work was garbage.
UpperCasey
67% on Rotten Tomatoes. Seriously!
cuteguy
This movie is garbage. And this m0ron of an author is trying to make Jodie Foster into a queer icon when most of her life and career she remained closeted. Not exactly a hero. She’s only out now bc it’s safe to do and she’s an actress of a certain age who isn’t Meryl Streep so her opportunities have dried up
skeldare
Quite a stretch.
IvanPH
It is one of the best science fiction films of all-time. This is Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s favorite film. My only problem with it is the part of the story where the duplicate machine was created by the Japanese yet they’re still willing to let an American ride or use it. That’s quite unbelievable. I haven’t read the book by the late great Carl Sagan so I don’t know if this is how he also wrote it. Nevertheless, it’s a great film because it perfectly portrays how the whole world will react if aliens contact us.
IvanPH
I learned a new word today.
verisimilitude
It means the appearance of being true or real.
Ronbo
Thank you. It’s a great word for complex times like ours.
I really, really wanted to like Contact; but, movies about aliens that don’t have aliens seem only half fulfilling or satisifying. I know, I know, they are movies about us and our reaction to such enlightnment. But they are like being given a big, beautifully wrapped gift only to find that it’s empty. Really, really lofty buildup followed by disappointment.