A movie like this only comes around every so often.

Rating: 10/10 (16 April 2015)

So you've come here to read what all the hype is about? Wonderful! I won't go into too much detail about the actual film, because this one's enjoyed best if you don't spoil things for yourself. Seriously, don't do that.
Let me preface this by saying I watched Interstellar twice in the movie theatre last November (and a few times since then). It's just that good of a journey.
First off, I want to address this, "So, how complicated is this movie? Do I need to know a lot about astrophysics?" Well, that depends. I went with a couple of friends and none of them are interested in black holes, wormholes, space travel AT ALL. Some were confused throughout the movie, some weren't. I think it depends on how well you personally pay attention. This is not a movie for you to munch your popcorn throughout the dialogue scenes, because you WILL miss important things, especially with the much talked about sound editing (the music overpowers dialogue at times -- this has been explained as being intentional for showing the character's emotional reactions instead, take of that what you will). It doesn't hurt to brush up on concepts like general relativity, wormholes, and black holes, but it's really unnecessary. A lay-person will get this movie if they pay attention. After all, Christopher Nolan is known for cerebral films for a reason. If you need a comparison, Inception is way more convoluted than Interstellar is. I'm not even exaggerating. Interstellar just deals with trickier physics concepts, but it's actually straight-forward.
So what is Interstellar? Interstellar is family drama dressed up in space sci-fi clothes. The key here is the fiction part of sci-FI. If people can suspend their disbelief when watching the latest X-Men movie, they can suspend their disbelief watching Interstellar. This movie doesn't deserve the flack it gets for being "unreal." It takes physics knowledge (which are mostly theories to this day anyway) and uses it in a realistic manner. If you need 100% truth, you should not be watching sci-fi films. There are documentaries and actual textbooks for that sort of stuff! The more important question is is Interstellar logical? By far, its plot is grounded and knows what it is.
Everything here is top-notch. The acting. The plot. The cinematography. The music.
Both times at the cinema, I was surrounded by a mostly male audience. Let me tell you what happened both times when the credits began to roll. Silence. Utter silence as people just sat there either brushing the tears from their eyes or holding them back. Yes, I saw grown men getting emotional, and no, it's not wrong. In fact, it was really great to see how it wasn't just me clearly affected by Interstellar.
I'm not a parent. I don't even want kids in the future, yet the family drama deeply moved me in a way I didn't think possible. I don't cry during movies. When a movie's over, I can reflect on how much I enjoyed the ride, but I don't really contemplate on any matters. That wasn't the case with Interstellar.
Interstellar's message was highly ambitious. It wanted to tell us something about not only ourselves as individuals, but ourselves, as a species. I don't want to spoil anything more, so I won't, but suffice to say, I can't believe simple tripe (in both actual plot and scope of its message) like Gravity can get so much praise or how a movie like American Sniper can get nominated for Best Picture when Interstellar had so much more to offer to all of us as human beings. I know I sound rather grandiose right now. Maybe some will call it pretentious. I don't care. Interstellar took itself dead seriously and more importantly it earnestly sought to tell each moviegoer its message. I don't know about you, but when we're constantly bombarded by crappy, brain-dead movies, I think that's very honorable. We should all thank Christopher Nolan for being amongst the directors who actually still care about making aesthetic films which make us think a little harder. There's not many of them still left in town.
tl;dr - Interstellar is a treasure. A movie with both heart and science. Christopher Nolan's emotional tour de force. Simply, a must-watch for anyone.