"Most of the stuff that's out there in the world of quote-unquote entertainment -- at best, it's just stupid, and at worst, it's vile and violent and twisted and sick," said Arntz of Lewis County, whose "What the #$*! Do We Know: A Quantum Fable" opens Friday at Yelm Cinemas.

"Most of the movies you watch, you get done with it and you just go, 'Ugh.'

"I'm just tired of stupid movies."

Arntz, who's in his 50s, figures he's not alone in that, and locally, there's already a lot of interest in "What the #$*!," which stars Marlee Matlin and explores quantum physics and mysticism through a combination of drama, documentary interviews and animation.

"I have widespread interest," said Vicki Elam, general manager of Yelm Cinemas. "I've been hearing from people for the last month. Not only people local to Yelm. I have gotten e-mails from people in Spokane, and I have talked to a couple of teachers at Evergreen State College that want to bring their groups."

Elam recommended buying tickets early if you want to see the movie on its opening weekend.

The 6:20 p.m. shows Friday and Saturday, after which Arntz and fellow filmmakers Betsy Chasse and Mark Vicente will answer questions, are likely to be especially popular.

"This is the first time we've actually done a premiere," said Elam of Yelm.

The filmmakers aren't calling the engagement a premiere, though; they prefer the term "preview."

"We're really excited about opening this in Yelm," said Pavel Mikoloski, a spokesperson for the film. "We really want to open it in a major city -- in Seattle or Portland -- so this is a preview. We found an independent theater that is encouraging of local talent, and we realized there was an opportunity here to give some good numbers to whatever city we would open in."

'Amazing results'

Simply put, the movie is about mind over matter -- the impact of thoughts and attitudes on reality. Long a subject for philosophers and mystics, these ideas have become the stuff of science.

"I would say the movie's about recent advances in science which have led to very unexpected and amazing results and conclusions, and the fact that those conclusions seem very much in line with what mystics and visionaries have been saying for centuries," Arntz said. "The two great modes of inquiry have always been the religious or spiritual and then the scientific, and they seem to be coming together."

The movie brings together interviews from scientists and mystics alike -- including Ramtha, the 35,000-year-old "spirit warrior" JZ Knight of Yelm says she is channeling -- with a story about a photographer (Matlin) who begins to see the power she has in her own life.

"I wouldn't say it's got the Hollywood happy ending, but she does go through a transformation where she realizes her thoughts and feelings are affecting her reality," Mikoloski said. " 'As within, so without,' the mystics say. And that's what the physicists say, too."

Star power

How did such a small film get a big star like Matlin, who won an Academy Award for her role in "Children of a Lesser God" and has recently been seen in a recurring role on NBC's "The West Wing"?

Well, she came to them.

"We hired a casting director down in L.A.," Arntz said. "We had a script at that point, and she put it out on this service where people can look at it. Marlee's manager looked at it and said, 'This looks like something Marlee could do.' "

The role seemed right for Matlin, who is deaf, because there was very little dialogue.

"It's kind of funny how she came to us, though," he said "It was so unexpected. The script had been written with a certain person in mind, and she wasn't really that, but we just modified this and modified that.

"The fact that she was deaf -- it's not really a part of the movie. It would be like whether she has blond hair or red hair. It's about the human condition, and everyone's got conditions."

Hard to categorize

The interweaving of the photographer's story with documentary interviews and animated sequences makes the movie an unusual combination.

It stumped the programmers at the Ashland Independent Film Festival, one of three festivals to which it has been accepted.

"They didn't know what category to place this film in, so they had to ask us which category we wanted to be in," Mikoloski said. "For that fest, we decided to use the term 'feature documentary,' which doesn't completely describe it, but it's the closest we can get."