Luminous

In a time when a lot of people are dickering about whether or not we should "trust the science," this film is a sane and calm-voiced articulation of how science actually works. In a time when many of us don't love institutions, this is a visual poem to the quiet reliability of small liberal arts colleges. Sam Smartt's videography is utterly sure, utterly competent. And his sense of what makes a good story is also strong, too. (No spoilers here, but the story is anything but predictable.) There's a lot of wisdom in this movie, especially wisdom about how discovery is both a work of art and a work of exhaustive precision---but it's a wisdom that gets conveyed through beauty.