MOVIE BUFF STUFF
Dark Matter
DVD Released: To Be Announced
Rated:
Genre: Drama
Starring: Liu Ye, Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn
Extras:
The feature film debut of renowned opera and theater director Chen Shi-Zheng, Dark Matter delves into the world of Liu Xing (Chinese for 'Shooting Star'), a Chinese science student pursuing a Ph.D. in the United States in the early 1990s. Driven by ambition, yet unable to navigate academic politics, Liu Xing is inexorably pushed to the margins of American life, until he loses his way.
Liu Xing (Liu Ye) arrives at a big Western university with plans to study the origins of the universe. At first, his experience is a heady rush of expectation and optimism. He finds other Chinese students to share a cheap apartment with him, and flirts with an attractive American girl who works in a local tea shop. When the head of the department, Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn), welcomes Liu Xing into his select cosmology group, it seems that only hard work stands between him and a bright future in American science. At an orientation for foreigners sponsored by a local church, Joanna Silver (Meryl Streep), a wealthy patron of the university, notices the earnest student. An unspoken bond forms between them.
Liu Xing becomes Reiser's protg, accompanying him to a prestigious conference where he makes an impressive debut. He is drawn to the study of dark matter, an unseen substance that shapes the universe, but it soon becomes clear that his developing theories threaten Reiser's conflicting theories and well-established studies. Excited by the possibility of a breakthrough, Liu Xing is deaf to warnings that he must first pay his dues. When he is eclipsed within the department by Laurence, a more dutiful Chinese student, Liu Xing is forced to go behind Reiser's back to publish his discoveries. When the article draws ire instead of accolades, he turns to Joanna, who naively encourages him on his collision course.
Liu Xing clings to the idea of American science as a free market of ideas, and American society as wide open to immigrants. But in the end, his dissertation is rejected, and the girl in the tea shop brushes him off. His roommates find jobs, leaving him behind. Too proud to accept help from Joanna, and unwilling to return home to his parents, Liu Xing becomes a ghost-like presence at the university. Left alone with his shattered dreams, he explodes in a final act of violence.
Dark Matter Member Reviews
You must be a member to submit a movie review.
Click here to login, Click here to register your free account
DVD Releases Coming Soon
Receive Email Alert When Available
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|||||||
Other Movies You May Like
|
||||
|
||||
|
Popular Movie Genres
Movie Reviews & News
Financial Crisis Hits Movies
Well before the global financial crisis came to a head in recent weeks, market conditions had been brutal for financing movies. Panelists ticked off a litany of problems that are seeing outside investment dry up, including piracy, increasing debt and a supply-demand imbalance between films and distribution.
Read Entire Story »
Vantage Point Movie Review 
Although the whole idea of this movie is to focus on each main character and show the terrorists' attack from different viewpoints, it doesn't hide the fact that the story just isn't that exciting. If this had been shot in a conventional sequential manner it would have been a standard run-of-the-mill thriller.
Read Entire Story »
The Other Boleyn Girl Movie Review
I had been excited to see The Other Boleyn Girl ever since I heard that the movie was being made. I loved the Philippa Gregory novel the movie was based on and I am also very interested in the Boleyns’ history so I knew I had to see this movie! Sadly, it did not live up to my high expectations.
Read Entire Story »
Movie Forums Posts
| The Dark Knight vs. Titanic Last Reply By: CopyCat » Thread Starter: Todd |
| Hancock - Time Review #3 Last Reply By: CopyCat » Thread Starter: Time |
| Happy Thanksgiving!! Last Reply By: Obiwan176 » Thread Starter: Todd |
| Wii: Virtual Console Last Reply By: Obiwan176 » Thread Starter: The Master Chief |
| WALL-E - Time Review #2 Last Reply By: Todd » Thread Starter: Time |
