The Vastness of the Universe meets the Intimacy of Family

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2014)

Ever since director Christopher Nolan's teaser for the film appeared last fall, Interstellar has been drawing comparisons to classic science fiction epics; primarily, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Despite these lofty associations, visual gravitas and meticulous scientific references are not the sole features that made Kubrick's seminal 1968 film a classic – these aspects are also not what solidify Interstellar into the canon of future classics.
In Interstellar, Nolan and his brother/co-screenwriter Johnathan tell the story of Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) a reluctantly retired astronaut who is given the opportunity of a lifetime after stumbling upon a secret space exploration program. The operation is conveniently being led by Cooper's old mentor Professor Brand (Michael Caine), and convinces Cooper – who is after all "the best pilot he's ever seen" – to come aboard the Endurance, a spacecraft about to embark on a mission during which its crew will hopefully discover a new home planet for the human race in a neighboring galaxy. Hokey, even hackneyed, as this pulpy sci-fi premise sounds, it also helps rocket Interstellar into the stratosphere of out-of- this-world entertainment.
Without giving away too many of the film's secrets, I will say that, like every Nolan film, there are exciting twists and solid performances by a game ensemble cast. Nolan is one of the few directors today whose name is well enough known beyond the confines of the cinephile community to make every film he releases a major event; a Christopher Nolan film is marketable as a Christopher Nolan film. As a result, Nolan's directorial presence dominates almost every Nolan movie (with the exception, perhaps, of Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight.) Though Nolan's directorial perfectionism is a formidable force in Interstellar, it is impossible not to bask in the film's audible majesty. The score, composed by frequent Nolan collaborator Hans Zimmer, can only be described as magnificent.
In a time when blockbusters must tantalize audiences with astounding special effects, Interstellar definitely delivers. But, as impressive as visual and technological advancement can be in a film, it seems that with every passing year, there is at least one film that boasts "groundbreaking visuals." Last year, this film was Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity; another movie touted as a modern 2001. Today, with technology's rate of advancement, it is very possible that in a decade, both Gravity and Interstellar's visuals could be considerably dated. The fallibility of visual technology is exactly why it is worth acknowledging that Interstellar's most timeless accomplishment is its rumination on human themes (faith, love, persistence, and family) that transcend the time and space its characters attempt to navigate.
Nolan has scaffolded the viewer's experience of Interstellar through his previous films; specifically with Inception, a film where numerous faux-intellectual dialogic expositions confuses some viewers, but really should not have to endure too much cerebral scrutiny. Questioning the convoluted dreamscapes of Inception, and similarly the scientific feasibility of Interstellar, poses the risk of being denied access to the true treasure of Nolan's work: unbridled film geek joy. Luckily that feeling, that must-see-it- again relish that overwhelmed me as I walked out of The Prestige and The Dark Knight, runs rampant throughout Nolan's latest.
The finer points of narrative convolution are by no means new to Nolan's filmography, but many critics have noted the seldom seen warmer side that the auteur reveals in his galactic odyssey. Only a master filmmaker like Nolan could have placed a story in the vastest setting possible and still meditate so beautifully on a subject as intimate as familial devotion. While Nolan the man and Nolan the director are no strangers to familial love, his previous films have only addressed familial relations as peripheral concerns, and rarely as the primary focus. In spite of its indisputably ambitious scope, Interstellar still remains constantly interested in capturing Cooper's inner turmoil about leaving his family on a doomed Earth rather than the monumental discoveries of the mission at hand. Nolan ensures that the film's scientific development is ultimately second to emotional.
Grade: A
By Ben Pieper (November 8th, 2014)