It will excite, crush, and overwhelm you.

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2014)

BY RYAN C. SHOWERS
Christopher Nolan has become the most popular director in Hollywood, one who overlaps equally in audience devotion and critical support. Having this popularity is a blessing and a curse: He's given artistic freedom from movie studios who know people will pay to see his movies, but the status of a "A Film by Christopher Nolan" raises the bar of expectation to unbelievable heights any time he releases a new movie. The setting of his newest film "Interstellar" is outer space, and from that, comparisons have been drawn to Stanley Kubrick's cinematic masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey", which adds even more weight for "Interstellar" to carry on its shoulders.
In the film, earth is becoming an unsuitable place for human beings to live. Dust storms are damaging human health, crops are failing (except corn), and there's an imbalance of nitrogen and oxygen in the air. NASA devises a plan to relocate human life to another region in space. Ex-pilot and current farmer Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is solicited to leave his children on Earth and lead a voyage through a wormhole near Saturn into another galaxy, searching for alternative planets on which the human race could inhabit. The NASA team of explorers must conclude their mission before everyone on Earth either suffocates or starves, which proves difficult because time moves more quickly in the alternative galaxies.
When describing "Interstellar", the simple terms of "good" and "bad" are not enough to accurately assess it. The ambition and scope presented in this film are indescribable. Even if all of the components are not flawlessly carried out, Nolan widens our eyes with his beautiful sense of framing cinematic shots and stretches our minds intellectually farther than any other mainstream film will this year.
Unlike "Inception" and "The Dark Knight", "Interstellar" uses leaner action to tell its story, focusing on the characters, the relationships between them, and how the environment impacts their odyssey. The film is not concerned with volcanic gun violence or fistfights; there's a maturity Nolan finds in sensitively telling his existential adventure story.
Nolan may be one of our most popular modern filmmakers, but "Interstellar" is a throwback film to a completely different time. It's produced in the veins of "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Alien", quieter films about characters dealing with their surroundings in space. Nolan is a firm believer in using practical special effects, not CGI. Last year's "Gravity" wowed the world with its stunning CGI, but "Interstellar", generated with more old-fashioned special effects, has an organic texture that is not found in most blockbuster films today. The visual elements are extraordinary; each shot is composed of Nolan's deep thought, precision, and imagination.
However, "Interstellar" is maybe Nolan's most blindingly flawed film to date. The first 45 minutes of the movie take place on Earth, and that portion of the film contains overwritten, contrite dialogue that deflates the visuals, acting, and story around said dialogue. Thankfully, this issue dissipates once the Cooper and NASA leave Earth and travel into our solar system. Once they take off into space, the film goes right along with them and soars to stellar levels. Nolan welds his finest scenes with a calmer directing touch and pens the screenplay with affecting themes of love, time, and family bonds.
The acting in "Interstellar" is remarkable and represents the most emotionally rich characters in Nolan's filmography. Matthew McConaughey is the star of "Interstellar", and delivers a performance equal to his Oscar-winning portrayal in "Dallas Buyers Club". He is handed the most sentimental character of his career and kills every moment of it with effortless characterization and gutting emotion. Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain portray great, relevant female characters in "Interstellar" and each actress brings a deep sense of poignancy to her role.
Intellectual, ambitious, and visually wondrous, "Interstellar" displays portions of Nolan's most troubled work but also his most accomplished. It will excite, crush, and overwhelm you.
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