Film

What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?

Name: What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?
Genre: Documentary, Comedy, Drama
Released: 2004
Cast: Marlee Matlin, Elaine Hendrix, John Ross Bowie, Robert Bailey Jr., Barry Newman

Drama
Slow-burning

A photographer questioning her life gets lectured on quantum mechanics and consciousness by a parade of talking-head experts while we watch her slowly wake up to the interconnectedness of everything. It's part narrative drama, part TED talk, utterly sincere, and exactly as strange as that sounds. Made for people ready to believe that thought shapes reality.

TMDb rating

2.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy big, speculative questions about perception and reality, and don't mind a loose, scrappy blend of drama and talking-head interviews to chase them.

Skip it if you want a tight argument or a grounded story; the physics is hand-waved, the drama is thin, and the interviews feel like a lecture that won't stop.

What it asks of you: Patience is the price here: a slow, talky middle, and at nearly two hours it poses far more questions than it answers.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

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If you're drawn to the idea that thoughts create reality, here's the documentary that became a cultural phenomenon for saying exactly that. Same New Age spiritual fundamentalism, presented with total conviction and production value.

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

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Waking Life2001

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The Truman Show1998

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Wings of Desire1987

Both treat consciousness as the central mystery worth exploring, but this one trusts visual poetry over expert testimony to get there.

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But It moves at dream-logic pace and offers no answers, only images and philosophy. Patience required. Some find it dated or slow.

Upstream Color2013

Same fundamental question—are we authors of our reality or passengers?—but told through abstract visual narrative instead of dialogue and interviews.

Shane Carruth's puzzle-box about identity, control, and free will told almost entirely through image and sound design. Asks whether we control our thoughts or if something beneath them does. Experimental, hypnotic, radically different form.

But There is almost no exposition. You will be confused. Some viewers feel that's pretentious; others love the challenge. No middle ground exists.