Interstellar Review

Interstellar Boldly Goes Where No Film Has Gone Before              -By Matthew Cooper

Christopher Nolan had already established himself as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 21st century. He has created smart, original, mind-bending films and forever changed the comic book movie genre. It is to no surprise that he manages to outdo himself once more by crafting a unique, powerful, and thought-provoking film. Interstellar is truly a masterpiece.

Set some 50 years in the future, Earth is dying. A blight has wiped out almost all crops except corn and the entire planet is one gigantic dust bowl. Humans have abandoned all hope of space travel and put all of their effort into survival. Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper, a test pilot turned farmer who is recruited by NASA to pilot a team of scientists into a wormhole to find a planet that can sustain Earth’s population. And that’s as much as anybody should know when they walk into this movie.

Behind the almost three hour run-time is a beautiful contrast between a simple human story and an ambitious, mind-numbing, science fiction adventure. The result is something that has never been done before. It’s a little 2001 A Space Odyssey, a little Gravity, and a little Inception. But Interstellar never ends up feeling too much like any other film. It’s something that upcoming science fiction films will be compared to for years to come.

The level of craftsmanship that all of the cast and crew bring to the film is astonishing. All of the performances are phenomenal. McConaughey possibly tops his Oscar-winning role in last year’s Dallas Buyers Club, while Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain are also terrific.

However, Interstellar is Nolan’s film. He and his brother have written a great screenplay that presents it’s emotional moments and scientific exposition equally well. With the help of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, Interstellar is also grounded in scientific theory. Even at its most bizarre moments (and it can get pretty strange), it never becomes implausible.

Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, is an excellent replacement for Wally Pfister (who was busy working on his directorial debut, Transcendence). He and Nolan are able to make some of the greatest visuals ever put to film. The image of a tiny spaceship soaring across the vast canvas of space is humbling while the scenes on Earth are fittingly dusty.

It’s also worth mentioning Hans Zimmer’s excellent score. With only about three different melodies, Zimmer uses dynamics to perfectly fit every scene of the film. The score is sad, heroic, and terrifying. At times it even intentionally drowns out some of the dialogue to give the overwhelming feeling of adventure.

I’ll admit that when I began to watch Interstellar, I was a little disappointed. Not because I thought the movie was bad, it’s far from it. But Interstellar failed to really blow me away...until the second half. There’s a moment where the film sunk its teeth into me and it never let go. This is when I knew that Interstellar was something that has not been seen before.

Nolan reached for the stars, grabbed ahold, and rocketed past them. Interstellar goes far beyond what a normal science fiction film should be. It’s emotional, exciting, extremely powerful, and it moved me to tears.

5/5