Interstellar

A Film Completely Out of This World

Director: Christopher Nolan
Release Date: 2014
Rating: 12
Running Time: 180 mins
Genre: Sci-fi/ Drama
Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine

"We use to look up at the sky and wonder about our place in the starts, now we just look down at the ground and worry about our place in the dirt."

I'll be honest, Interstellar is a hard film to talk about. There's no denying it's incredibly confusing and high complex stuff, but the real problem is, if you're talking to someone who hasn't seen it, there's so much you can't say in order to not give any of it away. I often say that if you're watching a film you haven't seen before, the best thing is to "go in blind". By this I mean, begin the film with absolutely no idea of what it's about besides perhaps the title, director and lead actors, maybe genre as well in case you're wondering if it's really going to be the one for you. Yet aside from that, by knowing nothing about the film, no twists or turns or anything that will sabotage the plot for you, you're guaranteed at least one surprise along the way. The problem is talking about films with huge spoilers, surprises or twists, you don't even want to know they exist in the film, because then they become anticipated and guessed to early on. Personally for me, if a person even mentions that a film has a BIG twist in it, then I will most likely hate them forever. It's one of the biggest pleasures I get from going to the movies and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Yes, some may say they hate twists and demand their money back for having just had the film "waste their time", but quite frankly, I don't see how they can say that. For me, you cannot beat a good surprise.

In the case of Nolan, you almost don't need to worry about spoilers..(almost!) because his films are just so god-damn complex and abstract. If you tried to explain the plot of Inception to someone, unless you're Nolan, you just won't be doing it justice. (Umm..it's basically about this dream in a dream inside another dream..and...they're trying to...) Let's face it, it's a hard film to get your head around, and it may even require several viewings to really understand, but it is absolutely incredible. (Only Nolan would think of having a city fold in on itself and bend the laws of physics in a way that we can still understand). I myself learnt the hard lesson that you cannot talk during a film, and in the case of a Nolan film, one word and you've missed something, even the tiniest detail and I was left bewildered and had to really pay hard attention to catch up with it all. It's been this way from the start, with Memento, we really saw a film you have to pay hard attention to (what with it going in a non-liniar, backwards order and everything) and Nolans genius was quickly unmasked. Now with the success he's had in the last decade and a half, and with the fresh success of his sci-fi epic, the man can probably approach any actor he pleases or any production company and will have a big sum of money pushed into his new project (so long as they don't mind working with Michael Caine that is).

So I should probably talk about Interstellar. But what can I say without ruining anything? It's not a love story, though maybe not a conventional Eros relationship we're use to. If it was any form of love it's a fathers love for his daughter (this applying to more than one character, but I'm giving too much away), the longing belief that the human race will survive like it always has done in the past, and the dream we all have, that one day we will find another play in the universe, not even in our galaxy, but somewhere out there, that we can find, explore and live. And once you get past the science (as there is a lot of it) that is the real raw drive behind this film. "Man was born on earth, but wasn't supposed to die here".

Although it wasn't all down to Nolan, as a completely non green screened film (so they're saying) the production team that worked on this film must've been incredible, and the time that would've gone into making even a mere few seconds of footage was most likely incredible. But for me, there were two genius' working on Interstellar. Nolan of course, but also the sheer talent that is Matthew McConaughey, and I think it's safe to say Hollywood has just banked it's new leading actor. Now I didn't know much about this man before last year when I saw him give his Oscar speech for Dallas Buyers Club, a film which at that point I had not seen. But what grabbed me about this guy was his charisma and clear love and appreciation of life, he just seemed like a genuine guy that had one hell of a story to tell. So I checked out the highly acclaimed film despite not knowing what it was about (I was expecting a film about southern race car driving, don't ask me why), and I was blown away. "This man can act", I thought. So after this I then set out watching his next project of True Detective, and for me, McConaughey was just exceptional, "This man is as cool as a cucumber". So expectations were high for Interstellar, and seeing him in the performance he gave, (one very different to what I'd seen him in before), he was incredible. The calm reassuring (Jimmy Stewart esc perhaps) protagonist we want to guiding us through. And now, there's surely no going back for this guy, I'd be surprised if I see him playing the guy who's in Tropic Thunder for 10 minutes any more, he's onto bigger things, and if Interstellar is anything to go by, the sky is definitely not the limit for him..(sorry I had to).

Despite being a film very dissimilar to what the director's made before, it was still incredibly Nolan-esc for so many reasons, both plot and actors, but because I don't want to talk about the plot too much I'll stick to the actors. Since Batman Begins in 2005, Michael Caine has appeared in all six of the following films Nolan directed up to now, making his mark as an official Nolan Veteran, and the actors not slipping, in Interstellar despite not embarking on the exposition alongside McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, he was one of the real stars in this film and I may have to leave it like that. Anne Hathaway also making her second appearance in a Nolan film after The Dark Knight Rises back in 2012, she herself becoming a very bankable actress alongside the other stars in this film (no pun intended). After already receiving an Oscar back in 2011 for Les Mis, it's looking like Hathaway may be heading for a second, and a very bright future indeed.

So how would I sum this film up, I suppose there really isn't only one way, but just a film that gives hope to the survival of humanity, shown in a completely awe inspiring and captivation way. If I had to sum it up in one particular way, I would refer to is as a modern and perhaps (controversially) a slightly polished 2001: A Space Odyssey, that even the everyday man can comprehend, just about. But like Kubricks masterpiece, this may well be Nolans, and rather than just a film, it's a sheer work of art. Total brilliance everyone should see.

10/10