150 Word Reviews: 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind' (1977)
When you wish upon a star
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind is one of Spielberg’s best. This sci-fi drama harmonizes with Spielberg’s filmmaking peers of the time: Coppola, Scorsese, Friedkin, and Altman, to name a few. It’s paranoid, spiritual, and realistic in all the ways American movies were in the 70s. This is about UFOs, yes, but it’s also about the madness of religion.
Richard Dreyfuss is heartbreaking as a young father whose life is turned inside out by a mysterious force, a ball of light that could be supernatural or extraterrestrial. His character has an inner child, and that inner child is impulsive and restless. Melinda Dillon is a single mom living a nightmare. For some reason, the U.S. government puts a charming French scientist in charge of first contact with aliens. Thankfully, that scientist is a very charming and inscrutable, Francois Truffaut, the great New Wave director. The aliens aren’t cute like E.T.