Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic. I typically watch films with audio description. There is no known audio description for this title.

The truth is out there. Are we alone in the universe? The existential question man has been thinking about ever since we realized what that big black thing with the dots was at night. When you look up at the stars, and think of the infinite space, it becomes pretty easy to accept that aliens, or simply life on other planets, exists. In the vastness of space, even if we may never make contact. Starman explores a much more ethereal conversation around aliens, using discussions and questions from the leading science fiction authors to poke and ponder at that perpetual mystery.

For me, I’m one of those people who doesn’t think we have aliens, Area 51 is silly, and the train of biped human-like aliens feeds into our ego. The idea that our creation was so great, it would be replicated in all or most parts.these authors aren’t afraid to ask what if?

What if society collapses before an alien race can achieve interplanetary travel.we assume they come in large ships, but it is just as possible that they could be living inside neutrons or protons. These authors are convinced that no matter what, we are selling ourselves short on what life can be when we truly open our minds to the possibilities. So, yes, it is a film about aliens, but a far more elevated conversation than we typically go through.

Led by the conversations and musings of pioneers like Arthur C. Clark and Carl Sagan, among others, the film is a journey through the conversation on extraterrestrial life with the understanding they might not just look like the Vulcans from Star Trek. The runtime is tight, running about 90 minutes, and the conversation will be incredibly engaging for its target demographic. I do wish it had audio description simply so I knew who was talking when. I’m not familiar with every icon in the field,and a reminder would have been nice.

Considering the release of files around unidentified aerial phenomena, now is the time for a film like this, and February feels like a safe period for a documentary like this to open that is unlikely to be a serious Oscar contender.

Starman perhaps doesn’t go boldly where no one has gone before, but it does tackle the theory of life on other planets with a level of astute theorizing.

Fresh: 8.1/10