Interstellar: How Film Can Make you Feel Adventure Again

Rating: 10/10 (8 November 2014)

Every generation of movie goers sees one film, maybe two, that changes the game for them. It becomes a signature moment that they remember years to come. They remember where they saw it, who they saw it with, even where they were sitting. Christopher Nolan has proved to be a film maker who works best with a big canvas, and he has never been given a canvas bigger than the one he used for his latest film, "Interstellar". I feel I can't even call going to see a Nolan piece a movie but more like an "event". For the average movie goer, they most likely aren't familiar with the directors of the films they're seeing but most know Nolan. Most know of Nolan because he has made some of the biggest, thrilling, and thought provoking films of the past decade from the Dark Knight trilogy to Inception.
It's almost not worth trying to do a plot synopsis of "Interstellar" because it is difficult to try to condense the happenings in a film this huge because I know that I will leave out something big. Anyway, the film takes place in a potentially not-too-distant future where the earth has become unable to produce all but a few crops and it will get to a point where none will be able to grow and man will die out. In comes an engineer/pilot/father Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) who is entrusted to be part of a space expedition to venture beyond a newly discovered wormhole to try and find a new planet capable of inhabiting the human race. Astronauts from previous missions have supposedly landed and have been sending signals for them to come.
McConaughey has always had that "movie star" potential and I think this is the film that puts him in that title. This was a truly star making role due to the size of the film and I honestly believe he is the only man who could have done it. "Interstellar" was originally supposed to be done by Steven Spielberg before he dropped out and Nolan stepped in. Nolan, clearly influenced by past Spielberg films like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Jaws", puts McConaughey in a role in the same vein as Richard Dreyfuss in "Close Encounters" or Roy Schneider in "Jaws". They needed an actor who could be looked at as an everyday guy who is experiencing incredible circumstances and McConaughey is able to display the emotion required for a man who has to drop everything, including his family whom he knows he may not see again, and try to save the human race. You can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice and your heart breaks and lifts with his simultaneously. This isn't necessarily a role that wins Oscars but it should be.
The effects are obviously amazing. This, much like "Gravity" last year, is a film that needs to be seen on the big screen, especially in IMAX. This, along with the haunting score of frequent Nolan collaborator Hans Zimmer, almost transports you to that necessary place that makes the events happening on screen seem possible. Kind of piggy backing off of that point, there will be those who will trash the film for "the science isn't accurate". Those comments are nonsense because no matter what "science" tells us, there is just no way for us to actually comprehend what is beyond a wormhole or what would happen if we attempted to go through one. Could we really transcend time and space? Would we discover new worlds and new civilizations? Impossible for us to say at this point, but what makes this film so great is that we are able to see the ideas of "what can be". It's the mystery of the unknown that both frightens and enthralls man and few films have been able to capture those feelings like "Interstellar" In a time where there are no more explorers, we're fortunate to be put in a position where we can feel what is like to discover and explore new worlds.
People will remember "Interstellar" for either being a truly great film experience or "not as good as 2001: A Space Odyssey". This is one of most popular slights against the film so far as it is the closest thing to "2001" and defenders of the Kubrick classic will argue to the death that it doesn't live up to it. This is an argument that no one will win because it is a generational issue. People see these landmark films during their youth and they leave such an impression on them, that it almost becomes blasphemy to hear of another film made years later, rivaling the one they saw. People want to believe that the film from their time was the best and that no film will be able to capture those emotions they first felt and the memories that it created for them. I respect and detest this because I will most likely feel the same way when future space adventures in the same vein as "Interstellar" come out and I fear it is something that is out of my control. Much of the film circles around the idea that love is the one true thing that travels purely through time and space because it is that connection we feel with one another that makes us human and that can be applied with our love for certain films. The connection we feel with our favorite films is almost unshakable and those who think they can make us waver from those feelings are exercising in futility.
In the end, "Interstellar" is one of those landmark films. It's a chance for us to escape reality and feel sense of adventure, hope, and amazement that rarely comes around. Don't miss it.