"Interstellar" is the "2001:Space Odyssey" of this generation.

Rating: 9/10 (4 January 2015)

Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" is an emotional and fascinating look into the future of humanity, a time when Earth's resources are scarce, corn holds the economy together, and dangerous dust clouds threaten civilians on a day to day basis. It is clear that we cannot hold out for much longer.
"You're daughter's generation will be the last...." says Professor Brand, played by Michael Caine.
The daughter in question is young Murph, played at different ages by Makenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain, and another famous actress who's name I will not reveal. Murph's father is Cooper, played with surprising sincerity by Matthew McConaughey, fresh off his Oscar win from "Dallas Buyer's Club" and proving that Wooderson finally got over his high school nostalgia and decided to grow up.
Cooper is recruited by Professor Brand to pilot a space station to the planet Saturn, where an alien wormhole has been detected. Three other expeditions have already gone through the wormhole in search of other planets that may be habitable to us. Now it's up to Cooper and his team, among them Professor Brand's own daughter played by Anne Hathaway, to zip across the galaxy and assess which of the three expeditions found the best home for the future of mankind.
The space adventure is completely spellbinding. From the launch off Earth, the journey to Saturn, the trip down the wormhole, to the unexplored worlds, and eventually into a black hole, we are given one dazzling sequence after another, showing off the vastness and beauty of the universe as the audience is invited not just to witness, but also feel as though we part of the crew. The physical science piles itself on thickly, but always assumes the audience is smart enough to know what the characters are talking about. A weaker movie would probably dumb the dialogue down, but "Interstellar" respects the intelligence of it's audience more than the average film. Several times, we feel like we're figuring things out along with the crew, especially in a spectacular sequence towards the end when McConaughey discovers certain revelations, and we are exactly one step ahead of him, sharing in the excitement.
But beyond the spectacular whimsy this film offers, it's also strongly grounded in its themes of love, separation, abandonment, fear of time, and hope for the future. It knows that doing the right thing is a complex issue. Even good people usually act on self interest. When Cooper is faced with the choice of saving the world or never seeing his daughter again, we understand where he's coming from. "Interstellar" is not the first film to send an astronaut crew into the realms of deep space to solve some sort of earthly dilemma and encounter hostile obstacles along the way. But it may be one of the best.