"Impress me, Spanish man"

Rating: 10/10 (8 March 2014)

An artistic experience. I sat thru mesmerized from the opening text to the final shot. There is a reason film festivals, 2013 top ten lists, and most nay-sayers of modern effects went wild. GRAVITY is a hypnotic, magnificently realized vision of what our furthest reaches contain, astounding beauty with a dark, dangerous edge. I'd been following this specific project since it was announced in COMING SOON in mid-2012. I remember thinking, "So...Clooney and Sandra Bullock float through space for 90 mins: Need to see." The most surprising element for me was the performance of Sandra Bullock. I've seen her work mostly in comedy, and was thoroughly impressed by her performance. I wished she had won Best Actress, but since she undeservedly won for The Blind Side back in '10, they wouldn't give it to her now. The cinematography is fan-bloody-tastic; the effects are some of the most hypnotic and shockingly convincing I've seen in any science-fiction work; and the direction is flawless, showing a mastery of mise-en-scene and composition not seen since the days of Kubrick and Hitchcock. The 3D wasn't as mind-blowing as say AVATAR or Hugo, but it helps envelop viewers in the seriousness of the isolation among the stars. I went to see the flick late in its run with a dear friend who exclaimed, before the movie began, "All right, impress me Spanish man!" Afterwards, he said simply, "He won." If you haven't seen it yet, which is unlikely considering the blockbuster it was, Go See It. You won't be disappointed by it, at all. 4.9/5