Manic Pixie Dream God

"What would you do if something challenged your scientific beliefs?" Um... I dunno, maybe point out that there's no such thing as a "scientific belief?"

Looks like this might be a good year for the Smart Movies With Stupid Premises subgenre of science fiction. First up is Wally Pfister's "TRANSCENDENCE," which thus far looks like nothing so much as a preemptive anti-Singularity hit-piece ("Don't let the smart people become TOO smart!!! It might not work out so well for the normals!!!" Heaven forbid...)

Now we have the trailer for "I, ORIGINS" (just wait till you see how the title is actually a pun,) Mike Cahill's follow-up to "ANOTHER EARTH." It's yet another movie about a dorky, introverted nerd (Michael Pitt) whose life is turned upside-down for the better by a whirlwind romance with a quirky, flighty, spin-dancing-for-no-reason, Zooey-Deschanel-as-a-Portland-area-kindergarten-teacher dreamgirl (Astrid Berges-Frisbey.) The nominal twist this time? Instead of coaxing our dweeb hero out of his introversion or giving him the confidence to finally finish that novel/play/startup, Organic Food-Truck Tinkerbell cures him of atheism.



No, for real. That's apparently our premise this time: Pitt is an evolutionary biologist specializing in the human eye, who's grand ambition is to explode for once and for all the popular Creationist assertion that the complexities of the eye are evidence for Intelligent Design. But after getting good n' Garden-State'd by Burning Man Barbie ("Why are you working so hard to disprove God??"), he's chasing mystical albino peacocks to India because hey, maybe reincarnation is a thing.