What the #$*! Do We Know?
Opens Fri., May 14, at Uptown

Like a slightly less dorky version of those videos your science teacher used to pop in the VCR on movie day, What grafts an awkward fictional narrative onto an otherwise straightforward documentary covering quantum physics, complex brain functions, the mysteries of perception, and the question of what God is (and isn’t). The nonfiction portion of this hybrid is a parade of talking heads, including physicists, biologists, neurologists, and the occasional guru. The story component of What exists primarily to set up the scholarly interludes: A Portland photographer (Marlee Matlin) wanders the city in a post-breakup daze, encountering her chipper housemate, a freakishly smart 12-year-old, and a lovable geek who courts her at a wedding reception. That party is the film’s low point: Its embarrassing animated sequence is intended to explicate the physiological nature of emotions, but I don’t think anyone over the age of 6 needs to watch a big, red, gelatinous human cell wearing sunglasses sing Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love.”

Otherwise, the film doesn’t pander; its three creators—William Arntz, Betsy Chasse, and Mark Vicente—place scientists on a refreshingly level playing field with theologians (and even cultists like Yelm’s J.Z. Knight). What never pretends there are simple answers to ancient enigmas, nor does it promote one school of thought over another. Though its metaphysics are muddled at times (what does it mean that some matter “pops in and out of existence”?), What made me question my supposedly healthy skepticism—like attributing more credibility to someone with a Ph.D. than a New Age mystic who claims to be channeling a 35,000-year-old dude named Ramtha. (NR) N.S.