Though the film stars the big celebrity from “Boardwalk Empire” Michael Pitt, the sci-fi drama “I origins” has a sense of grief and deception. The film begins with Pitt narrating his studies of molecular biology, his family, and the study of a particular eye that changed his world. The film brings us to his journey of a particular eye that starts when he is a PhD student. He is at a Halloween party, goes to the rooftop for fresh air, sees a random girl, and asks her to take a picture of her eyes. That girl propositions him romantically and vanishes. This somewhat strange encounter brings Ian (Pitt) to be on odds with himself and his beliefs on his studies of eyes.

The movie won at Sundance Film Festival in 2014. This makes “I Origins” one of the most creative and anticipated sci-fi movies of 2014. Given its meaning, its message, and its climax, it is a puzzle of created from one dramatic death, it will leave viewers stumbling with questions towards the end of the movie. Yet it did not so great budget wise, but director Mike Cahill is creative, bold, and vast with his focus of this sci-fi movie, as the suspense of “I Origins” takes place.

The movie is about Ian; a molecular biologist that has on obsession with the eye. He meets a girl on a rooftop, takes a picture of her eyes, and then she vanishes. A few years later he runs into her again and they finally meet like civilized people. Her name is Sofi (Astrid Berges-Frisbey). They fall in love and they get married. However, when Ian takes her to his lab to prove an experiment that he believes is appealing, she is not fond of it. The behavior shift leads to disasters; disasters so bad where Sofi dies in an elevator. Ian begins to become depressed; he starts to work less in his lab, does not have an interest for science, then all of a sudden his lab aid Karen (Brit Marling) comforts him. Ian falls in love for a second time with Karen and they get married and have a baby.

As the years go by, Ian gets ready to return to the study of Sofi’s eye. With his intense research with his wife Karen, they realize there is someone in the world that has the same eyes as Sofi. For Ian this means, “The eye can be a window to the soul.” This discovery puts him back in his place and he stops at nothing to solve the mystery of the girl he once loved until her accidental death on their wedding day.

This all happens with massive drama. At first, Ian is against the idea of discovering what Sofi left behind. Karen is for the idea, but Ian wants to focus on loving Karen and not thinking about Sofi. Karen and Ian have their moments of arguing about doing the research, but Karen has hopes that Ian is a genius. This finally leaves Ian to travel and find the girl who might have Sofi’s eyes.

Ultimately, “I origins” is a landscape of science, drama, and love. Viewers may see the film to gear on religion based on the scientific beliefs of Pitt’s character. Either way though, religion is not much of the focus of “I Origins” the focus is the discovery of the eyes of someone that died. The characters are not your average big name Hollywood actors, the film is not a blockbuster, but the script is well written and it’s a heavy, yet captivating concept. This movie is like a psychological movie mixed with science; with scientific results that will shock viewers at the very end.

Three and a half stars!

Patrick Brice’s, “The Overnight” starts with a common family setup. A family of three. The family introduces us to Alex, Emily, and their son RJ (Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling, and RJ Hernes). The family is just a regular family, however their behavior shifts once they accept a quirky invitation. That all begins once they meet Kurt and Charlotte (Jason Schwartzmann and Judith Godreche); a couple that is bizarre in many ways.

Alex and Emily move to Los Angeles. Upon their arrival, they take their son RJ to a playground. Within minutes of hanging around at the playground, Kurt introduces himself and invites Alex and Emily to hangout at his place with his wife, Charlotte. However, the night between the two couples becomes raunchy, awkward, and quite uncomfortable. Many unadulterated activities happen.

For Schartzmann, this role is perfect for him. He has the style of playing characters that are opinionated and have an ego. I have seen this in his HBO show, “Bored to Death” and his films such as “I Heart Huckabees” (2004), “Shopgirl (2005), and “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” (2010). Also in many Wes Anderson movies. Brice has the similar setup like Anderson’s “The Darjeeling Limited” (2007 and also starred Schwartzmann), but “The Overnight” does not have structure like “The Darjeeling Limited” does.

But “The Overnight” is at odds with Adam Scott. He is known for being funny, not serious. However, his attitude shifts from serious to funny in this movie. He gets crazier as the film progresses on. Scott looks like a whole new person towards “The Overnight’s” ridiculous climax.

“The Overnight” is different. Not your average film, but it has many evidence to support its positivity. It does so with the actions of the characters, the setting, and the result and the end of the movie.

Three stars.

The era of zombie entertainment has been quite popular. There have been many TV shows, comedies, and many movies in terms of zombies. Dawn of the Dead (1978) created the following for this era. The movie Shaun of the Dead (2004) is about a zombie apocalypse in London. This comedy responds to the 1970s era because its structure makes fun of Dawn of the Dead. With Shaun of the Dead, there is use of zombies being able to run and have coordination. In contrast, the zombies in Dawn of the Dead added to the era’s horror. Dawn of the Dead is more effective of a story than Shaun of the Dead because of its setting and social message.

The setting of Dawn of the Dead is in a shopping mall where survivors are sheltering themselves. The mall has some zombies scattered in a variety of different places of the mall, but it is only in the commons. This setting proves a suspenseful purpose because it leaves viewers to be curious of how long their shelter may last. The survivors keep shelter in the storage spaces of the mall because the zombies have no idea that the survivors are there. The mall is also proven beneficial because when supplies are needed, the survivors can get their hands on what is necessary. When they do this, their lives can be on the line, but they create a structure for distraction towards the zombies. They do this so they can get what they need without getting infected or killed. What adds to the suspense is that eventually somebody will end up getting infected because the population of zombies increases day by day.

Shaun of the Dead, however, the setting made no sense which viewers know that this was not a serious zombie movie. The film took place in London, geared on two friends who are lazy and drink consistently. All of a sudden, they stumble upon a zombie apocalypse with no idea how to survive. Therefore, they do ridiculous things for survival. The weapons they use are not really useful and their priorities are way off with safety being the last priority. In Dawn of the Dead, their shelter was a lot more secure. On the other hand, the shelter in Shaun of the Dead was quirky and not useful. They stay in a small pub to wade out the apocalypse and they board up the windows. Given that Shaun of the Dead was intended to be a comedy, there is no suspense for the viewers.

Both these films have a social message that grabs the attention of its viewers. However, both the messages are opposite from each other. The message from Dawn of the Dead is that surveil is the number one priority. This message is portrayed by the survivors as the film contains numerous moments of dramatic conversations on how to survive. A scene that describes this is when the survivors are trying to come to an agreement to who will go gather supplies from the mall. The reason why no one can come to an agreement at first is because of how the mall is swarming with zombies. Therefore, a fatality can happen instantly. The message from Shaun of the Dead is that safety is the last priority. Viewers realize this instantly as the movie already opens to be quirky. The main character walks to his usual convenient store to grab his caffeinated beverage. As he strolls to the store hung over, he does not even realize that the people around him are zombies. He realizes this like ten minutes later into the movie. With complete honesty, the characters do not even consider smart strategies for survival. They use useless weapons, want drinking to be a priority, and instead of finding safety, they want drinking to be involved.

Both movies have meaning to their social messages. What these social messages means to the audience are that Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead is to hold viewers on the edge of their seats with suspense on different terms. Dawn of the Dead is intended to leave viewers to be scared and nervous of what is going into the climax of the movie since there is tons of fatalities, no places to hide, and victims getting infected. In this era, fans felt that zombie films should be taken seriously since the film does not have anything funny. However, Shaun of the Dead is set to make viewers laugh as they watch the movie. The film may seem somewhat creepy, but it is not a horror film. Shaun of the Dead is a quirky comedy. Since each moment of anything suspenseful in Shaun of the Dead is fake and comical, this shows that the era of zombie flicks is not taken seriously anymore.

Overall, the era of zombie flicks has been going back and forth. The goal of zombie entertainment is not just to leave viewers scared. Instead, the gruesome violence in Shaun of the Dead is used to make quirky and laughable. This is a continuing factor in this era of entertainment. I believe this is an element that will be continued since the laughing moments of zombies leaves a fan base for viewers.