Review of Making Contact (1985) by Dylan N — 10 Sep 2011

The problem with Making Contact is that it was overshadowed by all the Spielberg-tastic big budget kid sci-fi flicks of the mid 80's. Movies like E.T., Poltergeist, Gremlins and The Explorers make Making Contact look like a half assed film school duo's project. Not to say that's a bad thing necessarily; in fact, that gives it most of its style but also shows its age.

The premise is unique enough and most of the story telling is left up to the viewer, which makes it a lot less agonizing to swallow (nothing grinds my gears more than when the writers feel they need to explain every little thing to the viewer, as if they think we lack the capacity to figure it out on our own). Here we have a young boy, Joey, who has just lost his father. All he wants to do is speak to him again and, with his sudden psycho-kinetic powers and a red toy phone, his wish is shortly granted. But is it really his father on the other line?

Without ruining the story, I will say that the bulk of the acting is shit and, aside from the children, all the actors may as well be replaced by cardboard cutouts. It really is a sort of coming of age/innocence of child sort of movies that, if put in more competent hands, could've been an instant classic that any cinephile would love to add to their catalog right next to E.T.