A wondrous creature from the cosmos befriends a lonely boy from a broken home in Steven Spielberg’s magnificent adventure E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (A+). Told to the tunes of soaring John Williams melodies, the story is both intimate and sprawling as gifted child actor Henry Thomas makes you absolutely believe in the bond of friendship he forges with a pint-sized alien. Dee Wallace is wonderful as the well-meaning mom whose workload eclipses some telltale signs that a close encounter of the suburban kind is being arranged in the recesses of her household. Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore are also well cast as the other kids in the home who encounter Halloween highjinks, chases from foreboding scientists and magic around every corner. Spielberg shows everything from a child’s POV, which makes the wonder all the more resplendent. The effects and production design demonstrate the heights of creativity in the craft. Both the simple coming of age story and the deeper metaphor attached to the central relationship of this Spielberg masterwork make this movie endure as a modern classic.