Clara (2018)

MIMDB score: 8.5
Current IMDB score: 6.9
Director: Akash Sherman
Main Actors you care about: n/a, you haven't heard of these actors yet.

Why I liked it: This movie could be considered very troupe-y but the feeling by the end of the movie that this movie gave me is what I'm looking for in an entertaining movie.  I want to watch a movie, get to the end, and then think, holy crap, I didn't watch that movie close enough.  That means to me that it's a well-crafted movie.  It has stereo-types in regular sci-fi/philosophical movies but it doesn't really matter.  It's still all well done, and the plot and execution of that plot is well done.  It (I won't say perfectly but) near perfectly rides the line of feeling/faith vs. fact-based thought.  You can either conclude that Clara is an alien that helps the main character make contact with her species, that Clara is a manifestation of the main character's son, or just a whimsical human that just randomly comes across the main character.  This is exactly what an entertaining movie wants to do.  It gives you multiple ways to think about what is happening so that you expand your mind critically.  It's great and few movies do this and even fewer do it with the simplistic, quiet style that this movie uses.

This movie glorifies astronomy in a clever, interesting, and entertaining way which I haven't overly seen before.

Thing(s) I would change:
There's a scene where the friend character says "it looks like you haven't slept" which the main character looks the same as any other scene.  Maybe the movie is saying he never sleeps but he should look more deprived of sleep I felt like.  It just took me out of the movie during that scene.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
The conversation they have while walking near a river is something out of Before Sunset for me.
Clara:  Can I ask you something?
Isaac: Yea
Clara: Why is finding life out there so important to you?
Isaac: You know what people are scared of most?
Clara: Death?
Isaac: (shakes head) The unknown which unfortunately this universe is chock full of.  Sure, we've been chipping away at it for thousands of years but we still basically know nothing.  So how do we process that?  We do what we've always done.  We make things up. Create these elaborate bedtime stories to explain it all.  But if we found something, I mean even smallest clue that something else exists out there.  Something entirely different, well we wouldn't be in the dark anymore.  We wouldn't have to be scared.
Clara: So you think the only reason we tell stories is because we're scared?
Isaac: Terrified.
Clara: Ok, but what if telling stories is just a part of human nature?
Isaac: I'm done playing pretend, I think we all should be.
Clara: Ok, Ok, What about this?  Let's say there's a scientist who is brilliant and very well respected who makes game changing, world altering advancements in his field but he's also religious, his driving force is his faith, his belief in god a bedtime story, but the result of his work is science and progress.  What would you say to him?
Isaac: What would I say?
Clara: Yes
Isaac: I'd say skip church and get back to work.  You'd get more done faster.
Clara: Well I think he did just fine.
Isaac: What?
Clara: Sir Issac Newton, I think he did just fine.
Isaac: (laughs), Alright, we've got work to do.

The projector scene of TESS images is quite interesting.  It made me want to buy a projector and do the same thing on my wall.

Having a couch outside on a roof-like place has always been a dream of mine.

I've barely hit on the music which I want to hit on more as this movie is wonderfully scored.  Classical music in the right places to give you time to think and the original version of Girl from the North Country by Bob Dylan.  The transition scenes showcasing telescope imagery of space is great.  It adds to the immersion into astronomy.  This movie makes me want to by a telescope and join an astronomy club (which if you live in a major city I bet has one)

Similar Movies/TV Shows: The Fountain, Cloud Atlas, Contact, The Arrival, Before Sunset (reminded me a few times)

"Side" note: There's a review (that I hate) on IMDB saying that the plot is great except for the "textbook manic pixie dream girl story".  I think this misses what the movie is trying to express.  If they made the girl a non-manic-pixie-dream-girl-type, then she couldn't be seen as an alien I don't feel like.  If she had more of a back-story or even grew as a character then I think you could miss that she could be "an alien that helps the main character make contact with her species, that Clara is a manifestation of the main characters son, or just a whimsical human that just randomly comes across the main character".  In general the "manic pixie dream girl" troupe really overlooks what's going on in the movie and over simplifies the point the movie is making with that character.

The actors that play Clara and Isaac are (currently) married in real life.