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<\/a>Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today. <\/strong><\/p>\nJonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films. <\/em><\/p>\n
Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net<\/a>. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim<\/a>, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com\/ReThinkReviews<\/a>. ReThink Reviews’ theme song is by Restavrant<\/a>. <\/p>\n
Contagion<\/strong><\/p>\n
Diseases can be tricky movie villains. They\u2019re invisible and could be carried by anyone, making them particularly insidious and unnerving, and we have an innate fear of illness, whether it\u2019s killers like the plague or AIDS or the yearly discomfort from flu season. But you can\u2019t fight a virus like it\u2019s a psychopath with an ax, which is why so many disease movies have the infected turning into monsters or focus on the post-apocalyptic world after the pandemic has passed.<\/p>\n
The new film \u2018Contagion\u2019 tracks the first several weeks as a new virus sweeps the world, killing the infected in a matter of days. But what makes \u2018Contagion\u2019 so unique and powerful is that the virus is only briefly the villain. Very quickly, that role shifts from the virus to the hands and faces of every person on the planet, and eventually to human nature itself. <\/p>\n
Director Steven Soderbergh has assembled an all-star cast to tackle the many facets of the response to a pandemic, much as he did in his Oscar-winning 2000 film about the war on drugs, \u2018Traffic\u2019. Matt Damon plays Mitch, a father whose wife, Beth (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), is the disease\u2019s first victim. Jude Law is a muckraking blogger attempting to expose a conspiracy between governments and drug companies, though with his own ulterior motives<\/p>\n
But the film\u2019s true heroes are the scientists attempting to learn more about the virus and its origins in order to create a vaccine. This was particularly gratifying for me since I grew up in a family of scientists, and it\u2019s been maddening watching republicans repeatedly ignore or mischaracterize science while publicly attacking scientists\u2019 motives and ethics.<\/p>\n
The idea of some international conspiracy of scientists, as republicans claim, attempting to hide information disproving evolution and climate change is ludicrous, since any scientist would love to find irrefutable evidence that overturns accepted science, and any scientist who knowingly falsified results would be risking their reputation and career.<\/p>\n
The scientists in \u2018Contagion\u2019 (which include Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle, Elliott Gould and Marion Cotillard) are much more like the scientists I grew up around \u2014 dedicated men and women who truly love science, the discovery of the unknown, and unlocking mysteries that improve people\u2019s lives. \u2018Contagion\u2019 is actually a great lesson in how organizations like the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization work as they attempt to find a disease\u2019s origin, track its spread, and find ways to fight it. It\u2019s these scientists who risk their lives on the front lines of our deadliest microbial battles, and they deserve some respect.<\/p>\n
While the circumstances in \u2018Contagion\u2019 become increasingly desperate as fear grips the population, the body count rises, government services shut down, and food supplies dwindle, the film maintains a calm, matter-of-fact tone that feels more concerned with reporting than judging or manipulating. And while characters sometimes do morally questionable things, their actions are understandable considering the threat they\u2019re facing, and the film never condemns them. All the acting is strong, particularly Damon, who\u2019s finally able to bring his experience as a father to a role along with his talent for giving natural, understated performances. <\/p>\n
\u2018Contagion\u2019 doesn\u2019t get its thrills from gore and surprises, but from the fact that the events in the film are so frighteningly plausible, quickly making you acutely aware of every cough, sneeze or sniffle you\u2019ll hear in the theater, as well as how often you touch your face, which the film says is a staggering 2-3,000 times A DAY. I can easily imagine \u2018Contagion\u2019 being used as an educational tool, since there aren\u2019t many movies that fill you with such an overwhelming urge to wash your hands.<\/p>\n
\u2018Contagion\u2019 is rated PG-13 and opens today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today. Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films. Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rethink-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}