If Going Clear was the event of the festival, this documentary was the unevent. Because this was a film about an event that has not happened yet – at least as far as we know it. Director Michael Madsen (who seems to take after Carl Sagan) imagines how people would react if an Alien showed up in their office. So in this “documentary” you have various characters – scientists, spin doctors, United Nation’s officials – speaking directly to camera as if speaking to an Alien. It’s very clever – we the audience are the alien, you see – but also slightly preposterous, and I found myself occasionally fizzing up with that laughing-in-church kind of hysteria.
On the way out I passed a bemused Jane Fonda and then ended up – bizarrely – in the elevator alone with her. She said she thought it was the kind of movie you’d wake up thinking about in days to come. She’s right. It was the first thing I thought about the next morning and I can’t stop thinking about it. The likelihood is that any alien who shows up here without explaining itself or communicating its intentions will sooner rather than later likely fall victim to the violent madness that seems to be the human condition. If you are an alien and can read this blog, stay away.
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