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HomeBusinessDavid Weiner’s ‘In Search Of Tomorrow’ Is Expansive & Poignant History Of 1980s Sci-Fi (Review)

David Weiner’s ‘In Search Of Tomorrow’ Is Expansive & Poignant History Of 1980s Sci-Fi (Review)

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Hollywood & Entertainment David Weiner’s ‘In Search Of Tomorrow’ Is Expansive & Poignant History Of 1980s Sci-Fi (Review) Josh Weiss Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Fascinated by the convergence of pop culture and Judaism. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

Got it! Aug 3, 2022, 11:41am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin ‘In Search of Tomorrow’ Courtesy of CreatorVC It seems only fitting that a behemoth-sized documentary chronicling the history of the greatest science fiction movies to come out of the 1980s be described with the same adjectives we often use for the cosmos at large: epic, sprawling, awe-inspiring, mysterious, grandiose, beautiful, and perhaps most important of all, a stark reminder of the lofty heights we as a species might one day reach. In Search of Tomorrow (or ISOT for short) — writer-director David Weiner ’s latest exploration of Reagan-era pop culture — is all those things and more, effortlessly living up to its subtitle, which heralds the film as “The Definitive ‘80s Sci-Fi Documentary. ” The rather ambitious project represents essential viewing for the post- Stranger Things era, where modern-day storytellers re-contextualize the themes, narrative beats, and watershed special effects and creatures made famous by the likes of Spielberg, Lucas, Dante, Zemeckis, Reitman, Scott, Miller, Carpenter, Verhoeven, and other moviemakers who dared to dream big and make an indelible mark on Hollywood.

“Grand stories of the imagination have always taken center stage in my life,” Weiner states in the official press notes. “As a teen in the ‘80s, I was at the perfect age to get lost in the big-budget blockbusters and straight-to-video fare that shaped perceptions and inspired creativity like no other. ” As he did with his equally excellent In Search of Darkness trilogy (which placed ‘80s horror films under the same multi-hour microscope), Weiner doesn’t just touch on one facet of ‘80s cinema, he explores them all, gleefully skipping from decade-to-decade like the time traveling spaceship voiced by Paul Ruebens in Flight of the Navigator .

MORE FOR YOU ‘Dune’ Tops Foreign Box Office With Promising $77M Cume ‘Shang-Chi’ Box Office: Marvel Movie Tops $360M Worldwide 4 Series Coming To Netflix In October That Are Worth The Binge The pendulum swings from the mainstream ( Star Wars , E. T. , Back to the Future ) to the more obscure ( Saturn 3 , Cherry 2000 , Earth Girls Are Easy ) and back again with ease.

Interviews with and behind-the-scenes anecdotes from a vast array of creatives, actors, and experts — including the late Ivan Reitman — keep you dialed in the whole time, even if you might find yourself sporadically wishing for a larger roster of participants. It would have been amazing to see input from industry titans like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Ridley Scott, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Henry Thomas, and others, but their absence from the proceedings is, as Mr. Spock would say, pretty logical.

There’s still plenty to chew on here, especially when you factor in testimonials from trailblazing VFX wizards and unsung heroes, Phil Tippett and John Dykstra, whose iconic visuals helped turn that aforementioned list of filmmakers and actors into household names worth billions of box office dollars. In any case, the documentary’s wide breadth of topics underscores the magical ability of stories, especially the ones projected onto the silver screen, to bring us together and shape an almost universal understanding of the world (a core tenet of science fiction, particularly where the Star Trek franchise is concerned). At other end of the spectrum, you have the dichotomy of a certain idealism envisioned by the genre and the disheartening reminder of how far we still need to go in order to obtain it.

One of the first movies discussed in ISOT is 1980 ’s Galaxina and while it might not have been the pinnacle of the art-form, you still find yourself experiencing a cognitive dissonance stemming from the movie’s satiric jubilee of all things sci-fi and the absolutely tragic murder of its star, Dorothy Stratten, the same year. The eternal struggle between our baser instincts and a desire to keep pushing forward, both culturally and technologically remains the beating thematic heart of Weiner’s impressive undertaking. There is a certain disappointment over the fact that humans are not perfect creatures, as evidenced by the documentary’s interlude on the Challenger disaster in 1986.

Sometimes, our reach exceeds our grasp. Despite the utopian visions of the future we keep coming back to in science fiction (this idea of living in harmony and settling amongst the stars), we cannot put aside our penchant for violence, selfishness, destruction, bigotry, miscalculation, and negligent oversight. Nowhere is that sense of pessimism more apparent than in the ‘80s when the specter of nuclear annihilation once again reared its ugly head — first in Cold War geopolitics and then in movies like The Day After and Miracle Mile .

The notion that the civilization we worked so hard to build could instantly disappear in the plume of a mushroom cloud felt all too real in those days, more so than humanoid robots and a United Federation of Planets. That’s not to say In Search of Tomorrow is a total downer. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Weiner has crafted a well-researched, tightly-edited, and eminently engaging celebration of the genre touchstones that have shaped our culture for a little over four decades. Sci-fi has captivated our imaginations and, in turn, made our lives better with technological progress inspired by the big screen entertainment we hold so dear (not every step forward signals another tick on the Doomsday Clock). Yes, the world is a scary place, but the documentary never dwells in the dumps for too long.

One minute you’re having an existential crisis and the next, you’re embarking on an adventure across the Eight Dimension with Peter Weller and Clancy Brown, or else hearing the writer-director of Mac and Me praise Paul Rudd for keeping the E. T. knock-off in the public consciousness for so many years.

The craziest thing of all is that despite its hefty runtime, ISOT feels like it’s only just scratched the surface. But like I said at the start, this movie shares a lot in common with our own universe, whose own mysteries we have barely started to unravel. Should Mr.

Weiner come back for a second helping of ‘80s sci-fi in subsequent installments, rest assured that he’ll boldly go where no one has gone before. Fans looking to take their own journey through the expanse of ‘80s-era sci-fi can get their hands on a copy of In Search of Tomorrow through Sunday, Aug. 7 as part of a limited flash sale offering a variety of purchase options.

Click here for more info. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website .

Josh Weiss Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.


From: forbes
URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshweiss/2022/08/03/david-weiners-in-search-of-tomorrow-is-expansive–poignant-history-of-1980s-sci-fi-review/

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