This Had Oscar Buzz
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049 - Contact (EXCEPTION - Turbulent Brilliance)
🕑 Added 2025-08-01 07:00:14 +0000 UTCThey should have sent a poet, but instead they sent two gay guys. For your August Exception, we're talking the Jodie Foster starring, alien-lite science fiction epic Contact! Topics include how this film fares as Robert Zemeckis' Oscar follow-up, Matthew McConaughey miscast as God's lobbyist, the film's odd rhythms and trend-bucking vision of aliens, and much more!
Comments
Brent Holcomb
I saw this on opening weekend when I was twelve and immediately decided it was my favorite movie. My family was super Christian and my dad was very concerned by my reaction to Contact. I couldn't wrap my head around why I loved it so much back then. I thought it was just my Jodie Foster obsession. Flash forward to my Richard Dawkins/Christopher Hitchens college epiphanies and it made more sense why Contact was so scandalously appealing to me. Not many PG-rated movies presenting a strong female atheist lead heroine back then, or now for that matter. Still a banger and so is the book, which is worth reading for the wildly different ending (and to experience Palmer as the antagonist he was originally written to be). Yay Contact! I'm ok to go!!
Michael
Cast Bill Pullman in the Mconoughey role
Brandon Skidmore
As someone who lives on the Gulf Coast, I just want to show some love for Pensacola after Joe gave it some unnecessary hate: Pensacola is a lovely town with a beautiful beach. Although, it looks nothing like the Lost island that is depicted in Contact.
