Interstellar

I believe this movie made Christopher Nolan the first director in history to have three movies starting with “In”. I don’t know how I could look that up even if I wanted to, but if anyone has an example of someone else who’s done that I’ll Venmo you $100!*

Nolan brought Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine back from his previous movie, but the star is Matthew McConaughey. Although not the one that got him an Academy Award, this was perhaps the best film from the “McConaughssaince” – the time period in the first half of last decade where the former Dazed And Confused star and romantic comedy stalwart was briefly one of Hollywood’s most lauded actors.

Light years away from this abomination…hey, the story is literally set light years away!

The plot…I remember watching it on the big screen and not understanding everything but wanting to watch it many more times so it would all make sense. Admittedly I haven’t done that since then – and I really wish it were included with any of the many streaming services to which I subscribe, as I wanted to rewatch it before this post – but I would still love to. It’s the type of intellectual exercise that stimulates you, and makes you want to go through it over and over until you’ve mastered it.

You could spend eternity traveling across infinity…

I will say that the main character is someone who travels to outer space to save humanity, and that leads to a rift with his daughter, as he’s gone for what might literally be eternity, but they reconc…you know what, if you’re reading this you probably want to watch the movie and don’t want me spoiling anything. I might be way off anyway. 🤣

If a movie leaves you puzzled at all, the big thing as far as whether you want to put in the effort to figure it out is the screenplay. The Nolan brothers did incredible with that! The score, the visual effects, the cinematography, the sets, and the sound all also help, and so does the cast! Not just the aforementioned actors, but John Lithgow, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace, Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, etc.

Terrific film. I’ve been known to say that movies like Interstellar, Arrival, Annhilation, basically all modern philosophical sci-fi movies, are B-grade 2001: A Space Odyssey but that still makes them terrific. What’s crazy, though, is that in the process of writing this series of posts I’ve seen that Interstellar is #30 on IMDB’s Top 250 while 2001 is only #90! I guess in the opinion of many cinephiles 2001 itself has been downgraded to B-grade 2001 now that Interstellar beat it at its own game!

Bottom Line: Nolan out-Kubricked Kubrick.

Up Next: Oh well.

*I realized that if the Insidious trilogy was all directed by the same person that person would be another example, but, alas, no.