One of the Best Movies of 2013. Highly Creative!

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2013)

Warning! Major Spoilers Ahead!
Alfonso Cuaron deserves enthusiastic plaudits for his creative thriller "Gravity." Unlike most sci-fi and action filmmakers, Cuaron is able to create a quality film from relatively little. The audience realizes that this film only has *two* on screen characters, and one of those departs early in the film. Sandra Bullock deserves at least an Oscar nomination for best lead actress simply because she is able to pull off an amazing performance with *no one else* to work against in the second half of the film. The audience plausibly feels her fear as she struggles to return to earth after a major disaster at her space station, which kills off everyone in her crew except for her and George Clooney. A film where a person talking to herself may sound off-putting, and the audience may assume the character nothing more than a madman; however, given Bullock's character's circumstances, the audience understands her every action and word throughout the proceedings.
The film is remarkable for its minimalist approach. The situation the characters face is not fanciful, but remarkably realistic for a science fiction movie. The setting is limited to the earth's orbit in the near future, rather than on Tattooine "a long time ago" or Pandora a hundred years from now. The "antagonist" (if the conflict in the film merits such as description) is not Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt, or the "Sky People," but merely an accident and simple carelessness on the part of man: space debris from a Russian missile test. The vastness of space and malfunctioning spaceships and spacesuits I suppose count as "antagonists" in the broad sense because they are obstacles preventing the protagonist from achieving her goal. "Gravity" is storytelling reduced of all of its trappings to its most basic form. The episodic nature of Bullock's perils are gripping to watch in and of themselves. Cuaron takes simple fears, like that of floating off into the abyss of space, or a spacesuit running low on oxygen, and uses them to make for a compelling film. His use of expensive special effects is well done here, and fits in well with paradoxically simple story. There are no flashy fights with legions of spacemen or monsters, nor lush settings (other than the Earth from space) to distract from the story. Pacing is also well-done, as we, the audience, feel like we, too, join in with Bullock's plight.
George Clooney does well as the roguish, playful partner in Bullock's mission. He seems to be channeling Clark Gable in his portrayal of a clownish yet debonair "bad boy." He plays his part well here--again, remarkable in a movie with only one other visible actor.
The film's violence is limited to the perils of surviving outer space with limited resources. There is a brief scene where an astronaut gets his face torn off by space debris. Other than these concerns, the film doesn't seem inappropriate for younger viewers. This film is amazing because it has become a blockbuster in 2013, and yet has a very limited amount of violence and no sex at all. A dearth of sex and/or violence in a major Hollywood film in 2013--both traits being de rigueur if a non-computer animated kid's film is to be marketable--is refreshing. This film seems like a hopeful sign that movies will adhere to the credo "less is more," be forced to be creative in their storytelling, and will shed the crutches of excessive violence and gratuitous sex in order to capture an audience's attention. Hopefully, Cuaron will win Oscars for this film, and not simply those for special effects. I highly recommend this film, if only because it is so different and emotionally satisfying compared to the usual fare.